Difference Between What You Say and What You Do

What You Say vs What You Do

In an ideal circumstance, what you say and what you do should be identical but it is often seen that this is not the case with a vast majority of the people. How and where this difference between saying and doing arises has been a matter of study for the psychologists and sociologists and makes interesting reading. This article will attempt to find a relation between saying and doing and the reasons behind the differences.

Man is a social animal and it is impossible for anyone to remain aloof without being affected by what is happening around oneself. What others say about ourselves matters a lot to all of us and barring a few isolated cases, we try to mould our behavior according to likings of others who matter in our lives. This leads to a distortion in our perceived self and the self that we try to build for ourselves. Take this example.

When a man marries a woman, both have different personalities, different likes and dislikes while at the same time having common views on some issues. As they both care about each other, they try to avoid skirmishes and tend to say and do what other might like. But this is only to appease the spouse and not the original nature of the couple and tends to lead to a situation where both of them engage in behaviors they like in the absence of the other person. This is psychologically very disturbing and brings about changes in the basic personalities of both the spouses.

While it is desirable to do what you say at all times and situations, it is not possible for obvious and practical reasons. The most important is the peer pressure as you feel that you must do what the group does and not what you like to do. Similarly it is not possible to always do what you say again because of societal pressures.