How to Become a Master at Communication

In this week’s communication tip, I talked about my son, a semi-professional musician, who teaches History by day and plays guitar in restaurants by night.

I can’t tell you how amazing he is – you would just think I am just biased. I could tell you for instance that:

• he has mastered not only the 6-string but the Brazilian 7-string guitar
• he knows hundreds of songs in English and Portuguese by heart – chords, and lyrics.
• I marvel at how he moves up and down the neck without even looking at where he places his fingers,
• he can transpose a song into any key
• he can listen to a song once and play along the second time
• and I could go on.

But you might say it sounds like I’m bragging about my son, and you might be right. If you watched this week’s video, however, you heard that I also was making a huge point. You see, despite how good of a musician he is and how well he has mastered the guitar, he practices his core basic scales very slowly every day, up and down for a minimum of 20 minutes!

Why would he do that?

Why would he do that?  I would suggest he wants to become the best musician he can become and for two primary reasons:

First, for his own enjoyment and for the enjoyment of others around him. And to become the best he must never forget the basics.

Second, he wants to become the best musician he can become for the sake of the beauty and wonder of the guitar itself – to make it come alive to its fullest potential.

[Now transpose this idea (pun intended) from music to communication to get my point.]

Why should you and I practice communication skills every day?

First, we want to become the best communicators we can become so that we and others might enjoy the experience to the fullest. We were designed to enjoy and be enjoyed relationally. We know that to be true. We so long to be heard, and when we are heard well – it brings a sense of delight. Sadly, however, the experience of relational joy is not often felt. In practicing what we learn in PLEDGEtalk on a daily basis, we can give more and more people the experience of joy when we communicate with them.

Second, we want to become the best communicators we can become for the sake of the beauty and wonder of relationship itself – to make relationships come alive to their fullest potential!  We all long for relationship because we were created for relationship at the very core of our beings. To the degree we master communication, it increases the potential for us to experience the beauty and wonder of relationship.  And might I add, for the greatest expression of love!

There is much more I could say – a book’s worth even – but for the rest of this week and throughout the weekend:  practice good communication. Deliberately, intentionally practice taking the time to love well in the way you communicate. Look for the experience of joy when doing so and the beauty and wonder of relationship itself!

When was the last time you really felt someone took joy in you?