Self-Development and Communication

Self development and communication: 6 ways to level-up your life by leveling up your communication

Self development and communication are two areas of life that are inextricably connected to one another—you really can’t optimize one without the other.

• Let’s say you want to improve your health (self development). How will you do it? It starts with a clearly articulated health goal (communication).
• Let’s take another area of self development—relationships. Let’s say you want to improve your relationship with your significant other. How will you do it? You’ll need to start with communication.
• And how about your personal and professional goals? Clearly, goals are a big part of self development; but where did your goals come from? In order for a goal to bea goal, it needs to be clearly articulated and committed to paper—that’s communication. Even if the only person you communicate your goals to is yourself—it’s still important to communicate them clearly so that you know what you’re striving for.

Here’s what I’ve learned from studying this area for nearly a decade: Masters of life are masters of communication. You can’t have one without the other. 

That said, here are a few communication strategies you can begin to implement immediately to help you improve your life, achieve your goals, and grow yourself in the process:

1. Words backed with emotion.

If I took a little straight pin and tossed it at your chest, it would bounce right off and drop to the floor. But if I took that same straight pin, positioned it onto your chest, then hit the opposite end with a hammer, it would pierce right through to your heart.

Your words are like pins. Your emotions are like hammers.

If you want to inspire yourself or anyone else in life, use words backed with emotion. It will change your life.

2. “I get to” vs “I have to”

How much of your day is spent doing things you have to do (as opposed to the things you get to do.) In my experience, the people who’ve built the most fulfilling + successful lifestyle for themselves are those that spend the majority of their time in the “I get to” zone … and this isn’t because they’ve gotten really good at delegating all of their “have to dos” (although it’s true to a certain extent) but because they’ve REDEFINED the way they perceive their lives.

They go from “I have to” to “I get to”

The idea here, is to speak in a manner that puts the responsibility squarely on YOU. Put yourself in charge. Give yourself control.

Of course, you don’t haveto do this… But if you chooseto do so, it’ll make a meaningful difference in your sense of wellbeing, self confidence, self control, and self development.

3. Inject examples into your communication.

It’s been said that if someone can’t explain something with simplicity, then they don’t understand it themselves. I agree. And I would also add: if someone can’t say something with examplesand simplicity, then they don’t understand it themselves.

For example, when I look at my most popular articles, podcasts, audio trainings and talks, the ones that resonate the most with people are the ones that contain examples.

Another example, at FlashBooks, we’ve got specific guidelines for all of our writers with regard to how to write our book summaries. And although I’ve got an awesome team of writers, sometimes they forget to follow the guidelines. So what do I do? Do I tell them to shorten their sentences and decrease the grammatical errors? No. I give them specific examples of what they did wrong, and exactly how they can do it better. You can do the same thing. Pepper more examples into your conversations and communications and you’ll visibly notice the light bulbs turning on in the minds of your listeners.

4. Eloquence is no substitute for intention.

Some people speak really well, but don’t saya lot. Maybe you’ve seen it—you watch someone speak with eloquence and elegance, but without conviction and intention. All filler; no killer. The delivery was polished, but did that communicateanything valuable?

When you communicate, communicate with intention. With your heart. When your intentions are in the right place, you can get away with a few stumbles and stammers because your audience—whether it’s an audience of 1 or 1,000—knows you’re not bullshitting them.

5. Communication is a skill.

Picasso produced 50,000 pieces of art before he died. Stephen King writes every single day, no matter what. Both men found out that the real secret to greatness was actually very simple: it was all about output; rinsing and repeating. That’s how they became great. That’s how they developed their skills. Effective communication works the same way: it’s a skill; it requires practice.

And no—practice won’t make perfect.

There’s no such thing as perfect. Practice makes progress.

There are tons of ways to practice your communication. You can practice in your head. You can practice in your office. You can practice with other people. For a long time, I used to practice doing motivational speeches in front of a mirror. I also used to practice on video so that I could see if I was making any stupid gestures.

Of course, you don’t need to practice your communication skills while you’re ordering your lunch at the drive-thru or anything. But you do need to practice communicating when it counts: If your wedding vows are coming up, it’s probably a good idea to practice them a few times over so you don’t embarrass yourself on one of the most important days of your life. If you’re scheduled to deliver a lecture to a large group of people, you should practice. If you want to become a better salesperson, you need to look at every lost sale as a great opportunity to hone and practice your skills. If you’re a single guy/gal who wants to find your next “boo,” you need to practice your conversation skills.

The bottom line is this: remember Mr. Miagi’s advice: wax on, wax off. Practice your communication skills regularly.

6. Communicate for precision, not for ego.

Some people cover up their lack of knowledge by injecting big words into their communications and conversations with other people. I hear people do this all the time. And you probably have too.

Whether you’re writing or speaking or conversing—simplicity is key.

Don’t use a word like ‘ensconced’ when you could simply say, ‘comfortable.’

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t use complicated language at all. My view is this: focus on precision. If there’s only one word to describe what you need to describe, then use it. Even if the difference is subtle, be precise in all your communications…

But remember: the goal in any communication is not to stroke your ego, but to take whatever it is that you’ve got in yourhead, and transfer it into the heads (and hearts) of whomever is listening to you.