speak Archives - Confident Communicating

As we consider the miraculous gift that being able to speak is, we realise that, as with any other gifting, we can ignore it; take it for granted or abuse it.

Most of us probably fall into the second category with regards to using our voices until such time as we strain them through misuse and unwittingly find ourselves in the third category. However, what about those of us who ignore the gift, and maybe due to negative experiences or self-inflicted limitations, find ourselves for the most part Silent.

Our mental health is improved as we yield to the deeply human need to speak and to be listened to. Remember Wilson, the volleyball that Tom Hanks’ character Chuck, dressed up in the film “Cast Away”. Wilson proved critical to Chuck’s mental health as his deep need to speak to someone – or anything(!) was evidenced. Some people speak to their dog or cat or plants in the event of having no-one else to speak to.

For those of us who have become “silent”, it is time to pick up the talking spoon again and start connecting with others verbally.

‘Confident Communicating’ regularly works with people who recognise that a lack of confidence in the areas of public speaking and interpersonal communication have held them back from pursuing their dreams and boldly applying for their desired jobs, or going after a promotion; these fears have stunted growth and quite literally kept some clients in a box from which they want to break out. The good news is that it is never too late to begin to work at being a more effective communicator – we start where we are at.

In his book ‘ Power and Influence’, Robert Dilenschneider writes, “You start to communicate effectively, this leads to recognition and recognition in turn leads to influence.” I would like to add a fourth positive outcome to that quote … the word ‘OPPORTUNITIES’ … as we develop stronger communication skills, this leads to more open doors and further opportunities; I have seen this, time and time again.

Our need to continue to grow and develop in our communication skills is a given, as life is full of people and people need communicating to at different times and in different ways! Of course, ‘Communicating’ is not an exact science as we are speaking about human beings with all our idiosyncrasies, differing perspectives and views, presuppositions, expectations and programming, however, it is something that we will be doing until the moment we leave this mortal coil so let’s continue to work at it to be the best we can be in any season of our lives.

NOW is the time to make a CHANGE, take a STEP and G–R-O-W. There is help at hand and there is nothing more exciting than overcoming those things that have held us back for too long.

Tag Archive for: speak

Using your voice

“If only I didn’t have to speak!”