Have you experienced the power of a conversation? Those of us who tend to work things through in our head need reminding that a conversation with someone you trust and who will truly listen to what you have to say can produce more information, creativity and solutions than if you kept mulling it over on your own. There tends to be a crucial element in having a conversation that results in greater clarity, certainty and discovery. In the presence of someone who believes in you and lets you talk, there can be the key to your next step in solving where you might be stuck or in affirming what your plan is for a certain task or goal. When I have had several conversations concerning an idea or a plan that I have thought about I immediately notice that I don't say it the same way twice. There is always something that I add to the description of what I'm doing or at times I've stumbled on an insight right in mid sentence.
What is it about a conversation that generates what doesn't tend to happen when we re-hash in our mind? Here are some key things to value about having that important next conversation:
- Someone who truly listens to you causes you to speak with a level of confidence. Confidence creates an affirming atmosphere that makes what you say believable.
- Saying it as opposed to thinking it creates a greater level of commitment to what you are planning. When its in your head no one hears it and so it can quickly be dismissed. When you say it to someone else, the words give your ideas a sense of reality that makes it harder to ignore.
- Knowing that someone else cares enough about your idea to sit and listen intently causes you to believe in yourself and so helps you go a bit further with your thoughts and imagination.
- When comfortable with whom you are conversing, the level of comfortableness creates an atmosphere of risk taking with your words knowing that the listener is cheering you on. If what you say is being received well then you have room to be creative and add that bit extra that no one - even yourself - has heard before.
- A level of accountability occurs when your words get "out there!" When they're "out there" its hard to get them back and so leads to a degree of self-accountability because you said it in the presence of someone else. If that person is supportive, then the self-accountability is positive.
