Archive for Communication skills
Communication — A Better Life through Word Play
Posted by: | CommentsI believe in words. I believe in the power they hold. I believe in the story a single word creates.
Bouquet. Tendril. Secret. An encounter with my junk drawer unearthed a buried book of Magnetic Poetry – that simple but ingenious invention—affirmed my faith in words.
My Magnetic Poetry book—a chunky spiral bound tome—is filled with refrigerator cryptograms and provides the perfect opportunity to tell a story. Magnetic words can be used anyone—anyone big enough to reach the icebox and with enough digital dexterity to separate the tiny words from their magnetic home base.
Precocious toddlers, stooped elders and funny kids can participate. Lovers, newly-weds and the long married have equal access. Universal in its appeal, you can love it or hate it and still partake in it.
It’s Scrabble without the stress, a crossword without the clues or hangman without the noose. The object is to embrace all of poetry’s shapes—odes and lunes and tanka and tercet. Forced to create from limited resources compels us to pare down to essentials. It requires the sentence creator to wholeheartedly do their job.
In this game the words take center stage. I have my favorites among the magnetic options.
Summer and song and secret.
Liquid and love and leave.
I love the creativity of put-together words like out-let and song-bird.
I love vivid words like summer and plums.
I love lexis that buzz and jump and make you look twice while pretending not to.
I love Haiku and tiny tales that jump off the board and send tidal waves of Oh’s to passersby.
liquid songs pronounce
morning shower so lovely
summers secret sound
Or
teach from here you said
bruised tongue staggers over his page
dark red book blossoms
Pure expression and creative endeavor—pick up a few words today—tell a miniature story.
Leave your poem below!
(original post Aug ’09)
Get Peak Confidence Gain Success – Review
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There are probably hundreds of confidence building products out there on the internet today, yet it’s difficult to find one that addresses every important issue there is to know about building confidence effectively. Some may assure you that building confidence is as easy as following a 3-step program, others may claim to have you confident and raring to go within 3 days or 3 hours.
The first time I stumbled upon Peak Confidence, I thought it may have been one of those rehashed confidence building books that wasn’t worth another second of my time. But having read the free report provided, I thought that it provided an interesting perspective on confidence building, and the visualization techniques in the report were quite enlightening.
I was convinced by the free report to give Peak Confidence a go. The free report contained techniques I found valuable so I thought the entire course was worth a try.
And you know what? Read More→
Communicating with Relatives and Others
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Your communication skills, especially listening, are tested the most with family.
I’m in Indiana this week visiting relatives of my main squeeze–the perfect opportunity to practice what I preach.
Good communication requires listening and staying present and engaged in the dialogue. Asking sincere questions is the best way to gentle nudge a conversation along.
To keep the conversation from sounding like an interrogation try repeating the last word or two spoken with a question mark on the end. It invites more information in a gentle way.
For example, if Aunt Shirley’s last few words are . . .”Bob’s sister used to live in this area.” You reply “…in this area?”
This is enough for Aunt Shirley to expound. . .”yes, this area was quite beautiful before the flood. You…”the flood?”
Are you getting the gist? It’s quite simple and takes the angst out of trying to find something in common to talk about.
Try it. You might be surprised at how interesting YOU become when you haven’t spoken more than a few words and phrases.
Intuition–The Decision Making Difference
Posted by: | CommentsThe best decision making involves three elements–logic, common sense and intuition. 
Most decision making involves weighing the pros and cons related to possible outcomes. While this involves both logic and common sense it fails to consider the most critical factor-intuition.
Insight, Instinct or Intuition. Call it what you will but without involving the natural ability of our minds and bodies to indicate what’s most important we fail to honor who we are. Intuition is the barometer for what feels right and what we know without knowing why we know.
Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Here are five things to practice if you want to add insight to your decision making:
- If you regularly make a pros and cons list, practice adding a third column labeled “what I know” to prompt your inner knowing.
- Give yourself permission to practice and to be wrong. Information overload can easily confuse a feeling or message.
- Carve out quiet time. Meditation sounds like work but ten minutes of quiet, non-activity time sounds like relief. Release the pressure to quiet your mind.
- Practice being present rather than trying to quiet your mind. This practice works well while you’re performing a mundane task.
- Don’t dismiss anything you feel or hear or see or smell. Notice what comes up first. Take note of it–write down any images that flash. Ask for more clarity. Become a student.
Imagine that you already know the answer. Have some fun with this practice-don’t make it another item on your to-do list. Our sixth sense has a sense of humor, go ahead and enjoy it.
