People Will Always Remember The Way You Made Them Feel

On a daily basis, you interact with a lot of people. Right from your home, in your neighbourhood, your teachers, friends, colleagues at work, strangers, you will meet people. However, what I have come to realise is that people may forget the content of the conversation you had with them, they may also forget some details like dates, events, etc, but one thing they will remember is how you made them to feel. This is why, in relationships, friendship, and even among your acquaintances, there is something that someone will remember you for; either for making them feel good or bad. So it is up to you to determine what people will remember you for.

Something happened a few years back when I was doing my internship in a particular organisation after my University education. A man walked into the organisation to get a task completed. The truth was that it was already gone pass the working hours, and we had already shut down the system. But the man kept pleading and sounded desperate. So one of my colleagues came to tell me, because I was the one who was on duty that week to shut down and close the facility. When he came to tell me, he said that I should not agree because no one would pay me for overtime. That I should ask the man to come back tomorrow. But I requested for the man to come, at least to see him first.

When the man entered the office, I was surprised that it was one of my teachers when I was in secondary school. He was so nice to me and to other students. Even when a student made mistakes, he would correct them with love and respect, without humiliating them. I may not remember every lesson he taught, but I remembered how he made us to feel. I could not ask him to go back and come back the next day. So I had to power the entire system back on to do the task for him. It took a couple of hours and by the time we were done, it was very late at night, but I was glad I did that for him. The positive feeling he created left a lasting impression in my mind. This goes to show that people will not forget how you made them to feel. So try to create a positive impression in people.

People have a natural way of responding to emotions. Of course, you know that the interactions people have will create emotional experiences, whether positive or negative. The truth is that you may not remember every word that was spoken during a conversation, but you will remember if you felt respected, encouraged, ignored, disrespected, valued, appreciated, or even embarrassed. These feelings will leave a deeper and more lasting impression in the heart even when you have forgotten the content of what was said. A friend once complained about how he was disrespected during a conversation. I asked him what was said to him, but he could not pinpoint exactly. All he knew was that the person made him feel disrespected.

One of the reasons why people remember feelings is because emotions create strong memories. When you experience positive moments such kindness, encouragement, and support, the feeling tends to stay for long with you. In the same way, when someone experiences negative moments like disrespect, disappointments, humiliation, and unfair treatment, it will tend to stay a while with them too. This is why the emotional impacts of the actions that people do outlast the actions themselves.

How people make you to feel can also affect your relationship with them and vice versa. Strong relationships are not only built on communication, but also on how each of the parties constantly make each other to feel. People have the natural tendency of being drawn towards the people who will make them to feel respected, valued, good, understood, and appreciated. In the same way, people will tend to avoid the people who constantly make them feel belittled, uncomfortable, discouraged, or insignificant. The way you make people feel will determine how they will relate with you. This is part of the reasons why, when you deal with people, you have to consider their feelings and their emotions, because they count, and they will determine the impression of you that they will create in their mind.

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