Communication

Communication

Hey there viewers! Happy Chinese New Year! Hope that you viewers have a prosperous year ahead :)

As promised, I'll be talking about something we face daily in this post. By now, if you haven't noticed the title, I'll be talking about talking :P (Communication)

Something so basic that most of us can do without even thinking. How basic is it? when you woke up this morning and said good morning to someone or when you text your good friends this morning. That's already communication, the beginning of a conversation.

Every time I go through a camp or activity of some sort, my belief that communication is the key to success is strengthened even more. During orientation, there was not a single 'quiet' game, everyone was shouting, screaming, yelling, to encourage or get some instructions across. 

Here's a story that I heard recently:

A young boy sat on the road side with a sign that read "I'm blind, please help". People just walked past with the occasional coin or two into the tin in front of the boy, but that was it. Nothing more. (Don't think of these people as bad, we as a society often walk past the less fortunate without a second thought)

One day, a man new to the town walked by and saw the sign. He put a few coins in the tin. (sounds same as the rest right?) 

What he did next was surprising. He picked up the sign, flipped it around and wrote some words and left.

Later in the late afternoon he came back to see how the boy was doing. The tin was filled to the brim with money. The boy, recognizing the man's footsteps, called out and asked "Sir, what did you write on the sign?"

The man replied, "Nothing much, I just rephrased what you said"

The sign read "Today's a beautiful day and I cannot see it" 

Effective communication

Effective communication is being able to portray information in an effective way. I myself struggle with this. Personally these are some of the problems I face:

1) Talking too fast

Speak slowly and nicely. That's the best way to bring out your point. If you're gonna talk like a rattle gun, people are only going to get bits and pieces of what you say. Personally, I talk to fast when I have a lot of things to say. In the end, the usual reply is: "what did you just say?" (of course some expletives are used at times but better not to type them here :) ) Then I'll need to repeat myself all over again. If you suffer from this too, let's do what my dad always tells me, "Speak slowly and nicely".

2) Talking too much

I talk too much. Really. Effective communication should involve listening too, but if you talk, you can't listen at the same time. If you're like me on this point, let's try this: The next time you say something, take time to pause after one part to see if your listeners want to add in anything. :)

3) Beating around the bush

Get to the point. I learnt this from my girl best friend (if you don't know the previous story about this check out the early few posts). She always scolded me for not getting to the point. I'll be like "would you....err....I mean...Can we..." Looking back, that is sooo annoying. Ok, so everyone, learn from my mistake. Get to the point.

It is essential to communicate. But what will be better is to Communicate Effectively. The next time you want to open your mouth and say something, think, speak calmly, get to the point and listen to the other person's opinion. If you can do all of these, you'll definitely have a much more enjoyable conversation :)

*Side note from blogger*
Top 3 posts for the past 2 weeks:
Limits
Loosen up
Comfort Zone

Hope this post helps. Drop a comment below or you can also follow me on twitter: @toranseth and DM me :) Always Lifting You Higher.