Imagine this:

You’re in a room, standing in the middle. There’s a door on the left and a door on the right.

Through the door on the left comes a man, who, without saying a word to you, sets the left-hand wall on fire.

You stand there, starting to feel the heat from the fire.

This man hasn’t spoken to you—he’s just standing there while you begin to feel the heat increasing.

It gets uncomfortable, then a little painful.

You look to your right and see the door on the right-hand wall is open.

Outside, there’s a beautiful garden, a cool breeze, a little pond—just the perfect place to go if you’re feeling too hot.

That seems like an obvious choice, right?

You dash out the door.

The man setting the fire caused you to leave the room.

He didn’t need to say anything to make you leave; he didn’t even acknowledge there was a way out.

He just set one side of the room on fire, and without stopping to ask yourself, Is this fire real? Can I handle the heat? What happens if I just stand here?—you saw the open door and ran for it.

You moved away from the discomfort into the comfort.

That decision to exit through the right-hand door was the moment you got manipulated.

It wasn’t the fire. It wasn’t the doors being available. It was your decision to move because you didn’t want to deal with the heat anymore. That was your choice—not his.

To dive deeper into this topic, check out the original video here: