Simon Hall writes...
When I bought my first home, a beautiful flat, I nearly made a big mistake.
It was the very first place I viewed.
I loved it immediately, but something stopped me from putting in an offer.
I suppose it was my logical mind, trying to rationalise away that quiet inner voice which was saying:
- This is the place for you, this is the place for you.
So I spent a couple of days looking at other flats, and didn’t like them anything near as much.
By which time, there were already two offers on the flat I now knew I really wanted.
I did manage to get it, but after a stressful blind bids auction, and it taught me a lesson.
Always listen to that quiet inner voice of your instinct.
I mention this now because we’ve just begun the second run of my Compelling Communication Skills course.
We offer a live lecture every week, and the first falls to me, as lead creator.
I already had a session outlined from the first run, waiting and ready to go.
That would have been the easy option, to just revisit what I'd done before...
But being me, I wanted to check it was as good as it could possibly be.
And something kept nagging at me.
it concerned the section on the character of your communication, or voice.
This is a critical feature of the first module.
You simply can’t become a compelling communicator without discovering and using your own unique style.
I had an exercise set up for the lecture to put the principle into action.
It worked fine the first time around.
But the inner voice was still whispering away…
- There's something better you could do.
The problem was that the voice can be a tease.
It wasn’t revealing what I should try!
I thought about it for a day, then another day, but then we were getting close to the lecture…
So I put into action a favourite trick, went out for a run, focused on the problem…
And the answer came.
I told the group to imagine they had been walking the streets, and came upon the famous balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.
You know the one, when the starcrossed lovers are exchanging heartfelt vows of endless devotion.
Put your voice into action, I said:
Write down how you feel about what you're witnessing.
Uplifted, charmed, having your faith in the human spirit restored?
Or perhaps nauseated, or appalled, or embarrassed, or something such...
Or, indeed, something entirely different.
Just so long as your character comes out in what you write.
I’m pleased to report the exercise worked brilliantly.
The group really let their individual styles rip, and it was great to see.
We had a lot of fun, but also got some great learning from the game.
And all because of...
Listening to that quiet but critical inner voice of instinct.
