Comments on: New Years Resolutions 2008 http://arcanius.silverfir.net/blog/new-years-resolutions-2008 The life and thoughts of Ryan McElroy Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:27:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: dc http://arcanius.silverfir.net/blog/new-years-resolutions-2008/comment-page-1#comment-143602 dc Sun, 06 Jan 2008 07:00:24 +0000 http://arcanius.silverfir.net/blog/new-years-resolutions-2008#comment-143602 Nothing like $250 to motivate the crunches Nothing like $250 to motivate the crunches

]]> By: Stickman http://arcanius.silverfir.net/blog/new-years-resolutions-2008/comment-page-1#comment-143590 Stickman Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:35:19 +0000 http://arcanius.silverfir.net/blog/new-years-resolutions-2008#comment-143590 My mission president down in Brazil was a lawyer. He would ask questions that often required a yes or a no. For some reason, I tended not to answer that simply, especially if the answer was no. Rather than say "no" I would give alternative solutions that might work, or give excuses that needed to be fixed before it would be yes. When I started down one of these trains, he would stop me and say, "Now Elder Medsker. You didn't answer my question." And he would repeat it a second time, word for word. That shocked me enough to stop that behavior and give simple yes and nos when they're asked for. I can imagine how traumatic that could be to someone who was trying to skirt the issue instead of just communicating poorly like me. Wonderful lawyer tactic, but it worked beautifully to straighten me out, too. Oh, and he was a lawyer by trade. In case you couldn't tell. My mission president down in Brazil was a lawyer. He would ask questions that often required a yes or a no. For some reason, I tended not to answer that simply, especially if the answer was no. Rather than say “no” I would give alternative solutions that might work, or give excuses that needed to be fixed before it would be yes.

When I started down one of these trains, he would stop me and say, “Now Elder Medsker. You didn’t answer my question.” And he would repeat it a second time, word for word. That shocked me enough to stop that behavior and give simple yes and nos when they’re asked for. I can imagine how traumatic that could be to someone who was trying to skirt the issue instead of just communicating poorly like me. Wonderful lawyer tactic, but it worked beautifully to straighten me out, too.

Oh, and he was a lawyer by trade. In case you couldn’t tell.

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