___

___

___

I’m not trying to be rude, George, but it’s just talking and listening. How complex is that?

___

___

Obviously it’s more than just speaking and listening, Mary-Lynn. Effective communication requires a meeting of two or more minds. A message has to be relayed and received. That’s more complex than many people think.

___

___

Trust me George, you’re making it too complicated. You decide on your message. You relay it. It is received. Voila, communication!

___

___

Think about it Mary-Lynn. First you have to decide on the message you want to convey. Then you have to think about your audience. You must state your message so your audience understands it. Then you have to hope your audience is receptive to your message. You have to find a way to engage them.

___

___

As I’ve said before, it’s just talking and listening. As long as both parties understand that, communication is simple.

___

___

To be honest, Mary-Lynn, I think communication is simple too, on the surface. It’s executing it effectively that is difficult.

___

___

To make a long story short, George, I was just playing with you. I think you’re right. Communication can be very complex.

___

Sometimes our quirks get in the way of the message. We send signals that we may not intend to send as you can see from the above conversation.

We could go through each of these one by one but you might accuse us of having a communication quirk if we did!

___

___

WAIT …

So let’s get right into a technique we picked up along the way that keeps us from saying things we don’t need to say.

In many cases, these goofy little sayings are just a bridge to what we really want to say. They’re fillers that are unnecessary.

So the next time you’re embroiled in a conversation, WAIT. WAIT is an acronym for: Why Am I Talking?

___

When I’m getting ready to say something, I just WAIT. I ask myself if I really need to say it. I think about how I will say it. It’s not fool-proof so I still say something foolish sometimes, but it’s really helped me communicate better.

___

It doesn’t need to apply to just oral discussions. You may WAIT when you’re writing an e-mail. Just ask yourself: Why Am I Typing?

___

In some cases, I discard the e-mail altogether. In other cases, it helps me really shorten it up. I still get carried away sometimes, but at least I get carried away consciously!

___

How about this one: Why Am I Texting?

___

This keeps me from feeling like I always have to respond one more time. It helps me look for that natural end to the conversation.

___

Speaking of ends of conversations, we’ve reached it on this post. WAIT and you’ll avoid communication quirks that send the wrong signal. WAIT for bigg success!

What communication quirks drive you crazy?

Share that by leaving a comment, e-mailing us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com or leaving a voice mail at 888.455.BIGG (2444).

Wait! We want to thank you so much for reading our post today.

Please join us next time as we discuss an important part of life balance we don’t often think about. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00488-092409.mp3

Related posts

How to Stop Using a Crutch Word

From Twitter to Star Trek – Out of this World Communication

(Image in today's post by nookiez)