I scurried around a relative's house looking for Halloween decorations and table cloths to help decorate their dining room since visitors were coming. I had a lot of energy and was like one of those cartoon characters who is zipping about causing confusion wherever they run. My relatives were dizzy watching me, and then relayed the efforts incorrectly to another relative. I thought about that this morning which led me to consider the topic of clarity versus confusion.
One of my pitfalls as an educator was the speed with which I acted and spoke which led people to get confused. This didn't help when it came to making good change and progress. In part, that's what led to my blogging since to write helped me to communicate complex ideas with more clarity--rather than tell someone why I did what I did or thought what I thought, I could send them the description to read at their leisure with good time and understanding. Then we could talk about it with greater clarity and success.
All of our minds work differently, and I've come to realize that my mind has many, many threads working at once, and when clarity hits, it's like a burst of synthesis that happens--it is like going from 0 to 100 in a moment. I love those moments of clarity, but I have to work at how I communicate the resulting ideas to others in order to communicate with clarity rather than confusion.
We all have to work for good clarity in whatever we do, and for each of us that will mean shoring up different aspects of the way we communicate. Some talk too fast, and some too slow. Some don't take the time to organize their thoughts and others' relay their thoughts with too much detail and too-tight organization. Some speak with too much humor, and others don't use humor at all, and some never stop to listen, while others, perhaps, listen too much. Can you listen too much? I think yes, if it means you never share your thoughts, opinions, ideas, or strengths.
As I move ahead in life, I want to be cognizant of this confusion-clarity continuum. We need to communicate simply, but powerfully, and I believe we must communicate with honesty too--truthfulness to and about ourselves and others. Our communication requires flexibility and empathy as well. And to be clear, we have to know those we are communicating with well--we have to make the time to know who they are, how they listen, and what works best with regards to communication.
Where do you fall on the confusion-clarity continuum when it comes to communication? What is your top ten list when it comes to good, clear communication, and what do you steer clear of so that you don't create more confusion than clarity. I'm curious.