I’m taking a sabbatical from writing new blog posts. You’ll be seeing some re-runs and old favorites for the next little while. You can always write me back with suggestions or ideas just by responding to this email!
Anything you frequently do leads to habits. You probably brush your teeth, wash your hands, and get in to your car the same way every time. You take the same path through the grocery store. Habits–you don’t have to spend time thinking about how to do them every time they come up, which is a good thing.
Your gait feels completely natural to you. The way your weight is distributed, whether your feet point in or out or straight ahead, the speed you comfortably fall into; it all feels “like the way this is done,” but it’s unique to you, and it is all habit.
You can probably guess where I’m going with this. The way you communicate is also a habit. The words and phrases you use often, the cadence and speed, where you pause, when you interrupt…all these and a hundred other things feel, again, totally natural to you but they are actually a learned and practiced set of behaviors you have created over time.
So what?
The way you walk doesn’t matter until you start to have pain in your hips or back or knees, and the physical therapist points out that your habits are causing you pain.
The way you communicate doesn’t matter until you can’t get your message across to your team, or you keep having the same disagreements, or you don’t have the skill to give a speech. Some of your communication habits are in your way, and just like physical habits, you need insight, feedback, and practice to adjust them.
