I’ve been thinking a lot on my communication skills as of late. Maybe I do fine. I don’t really know. But what I get is a sense that I’m a beginner in a sea of experts. I’m not sure if I can explain the why, but I’ll list out a couple.
To start, many a time, I’ll be talking to someone, and I’ll get anxious. Coming from other disciplines, it feels like beginner’s anxiety. If that’s what it is, all I can do to deal is to keep practicing until the what-to-do and the how-to-do-it become automatic.
Following the last point, there are lots of times when I only manage to respond to what someone said after-the-fact instead of in-the-moment.
Skipping the hour of thought needed to flesh this into a fully developed essay, it’s about being able to tease out a fully fleshed conversation on the spur of the moment. Ideally, to make even a total stranger at ease and to have a healthy exchange of ideas. It’s a dream of mine. One of many. And I have such a long way to go.
