Skills - They Take Work

(Orginally posted at Absolution Mediation)

Plates & glasses Every time I move I am faced with a major crisis. The kitchen cupboards. I can never remember where we put the plates, where the cheese slicer is, where my favourite pan is, and I know you have the same thing. However, time goes on and the more we reach for that (enter search item here) the more our muscles/memory remember where it is.

The same is with our communication skills. It takes time and practice to remember how to approach situations but eventually you can do it without "thinking." Ok, fine, it's not exactly the same, but you get the idea. The more we practice re-framing, re-phrasing, good questions, active listening, the better we become at them.

Pick one thing that you could improve with your communication skills and think about it, educate yourself on how to do it better, and practice it. Practice on your friends, spouse, family, co-workers, make it apart of your life and improve your communication. Watch closely and you will see it transform your relationships and your life.

But don't take my word for it, try it out. Let me know how it works for you!

Leave me a comment and let me know what you want to work on, I can be your accountability partner

(Photo Credit: Katherine Anderson )

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Comment by Nizar Ahmad on January 27, 2011 at 3:58am: Yes practice makes a man perfect...... i will do it in speaking english with my colleagues and friends to improve my speaking capability of english..... its really fruitfull informatino and many thanks for sharing

Comment by Sue Lindhorst on January 30, 2011 at 7:50am: I do not really understand the re-framing concept. Can you suggest some reading material that will help me develop this skill?

Comment by Jason Dykstra on January 30, 2011 at 8:41am: Hi Sue, thanks for question/comment, re-framing is basically putting a different point of view on something that someone said. While I don't usually recommend Wikipedia, the article on re-framing isn't overly bad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reframing). It can be used in many different ways. I generally use it to take a negative statement that someone has said and make it a positive one.