It’s so easy to be misunderstood.
Following are a collection of concepts to help you write, speak, and express your ideas clearly.
1. Pick a single word to describe your communication style — then live up to it.
2. You can’t explain something you don’t understand and you don’t understand something you can’t explain.
3. Honesty is a communication hack because people so rarely hear it.
4. Use the words your audience uses.
5. The main character in any story is the person you tell it to.
6. Assume you’ll be misunderstood.
7. If someone doesn’t understand you, it’s not their fault — it’s yours.
8. The point of an argument isn’t to win.
9. You can hear everyone’s ideas, but you can’t listen to everyone’s ideas.
10. Get as comfortable saying no as you are saying yes.
11. Don’t ask questions you don’t want answered.
12. The one who asks the best questions wins.
13. Before you tell someone they’re wrong, tell them they might be right.
14. Stating an opinion as a fact doesn’t make it one.
15. The ability to communicate ideas doesn’t necessarily make them good, but it enables you to find out if they are.
16. Whispers are often more powerful than screams.
17. Every word is a choice and every choice has a consequence.
18. Synonyms don’t mean the same thing.
19. A lesson learned from working with stand up comedians: Good ones get laughs, great ones get silence between the laughs.
20. All communication problems are attention problems.
(Btw, For The Interested will help you get attention for your creations.)
21. The more often you say something, the better you get at saying it.
22. What’s boring to one person is fascinating to another.
23. Just because your message was ignored, doesn’t mean it wasn’t received.
24. The more interested you are, the more interesting you’ll be.
25. Memorable conversations, stories, and speeches have one thing in common: Surprise.
26. You don’t capture attention by telling people what they expect to hear.
27. You can’t sell anything until you can sell the idea you have something valuable to say.
28. It’s easy to win over a room that believes you have their best interests at heart.
29. The better you listen, the better you communicate.
30. Similarities attract trust and differences attract attention.
31. If you can get someone to laugh, you can get them to do anything.
32. People can tell when you say something you believe — the opposite is also true.
33. Some people aren’t trying to win the argument — they’re trying to argue.
34. Caring is a communication skill.
35. Don’t write words you don’t speak.
36. The things you remember saying are different than the things others remember hearing from you.
37. Products and services are only as valuable as your ability to communicate that value.
38. If you think you can’t be a leader because you’re a follower, remember: Every great leader was also a follower.
39. The moral of a story changes when you change its start or end point.
40. Knowing when to stop talking is a skill.
The single easiest thing you can do to become a more successful creator is to check this out.