Category Archives: Personal Growth and Development
On How Important Effective Communication Is
“Good communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity.”
~ Nat Turner ~
We all agree that communication is very important, especially in this era when most of our decisions are data-driven. And I think only a few (or no one) would disagree that communication skills are difficult to develop. But no matter how arduous that task is, we must work hard to acquire them.
The ability to communicate effectively is a “must-possess” skill. If somebody says that it is a “superpower,” I wouldn’t disagree, for if you can communicate effectively, you have one of the most important tools needed to succeed in whatever endeavors and undertakings you undertake.
You and I should learn how to effectively convey our ideas and feelings and divulge our intentions properly. Lest we forget, though, that communication is a two-way process. It is not just a matter of us sending or encoding a message but being able to process the response or feedback being sent back to us. Or we could be at the receiving end of the process. This means we could be the receiver instead of being the sender.
In whatever role – processing feedback or receiving a message – we need to decipher or decode efficiently.
Communication is one of the few constructs that can be found in the vocabulary of different fields of study. The said concept is a fundamental aspect of major areas related to language and literature. It is an integral part of any field that requires information to be disseminated, such as in media, business, politics, health care, and education. Even in science and math. The said subjects may be technical in nature, but they require effective communication. Without it, scientists and mathematicians cannot disseminate the necessary information and knowledge to the general public.
I cannot recall any concept that serves most (if not all) fields of endeavors other than communication. Thus, the ability to communicate is included in the list of skills a person must develop. It is a vital component of any “self-improvement” model. It is hard to imagine a personal growth and development program that does not include improving communication skills.
Communication is simply the process of exchanging information or expressing one’s ideas, thoughts, or feelings to someone else using spoken or written words or any other medium. The process involves the interplay of the main elements of communication – sender, receiver, message, channel or medium, and feedback. The interaction of the above-mentioned components is affected also by other factors – context and interference or noise.
The communication process starts with the intention to send a message (the information to be conveyed). Others refer to the messages as the subject matter of communication. The sender initiates the process. They are the source of information or the one sending the message to a receiver using a particular channel or medium.
Channel is described as the path through which an encoded message is transmitted from a sender to a receiver. The message can be relayed through written or verbal (electronic or personal) means. Messages sent electronically may come either in audio or video formats. The receiver is tasked to understand or decipher the message they receive, after which they are expected to send feedback to complete the communication process.
Feedback is the receiver’s response to the message. Giving feedback reverses the communication process, where the receiver becomes the sender and vice-versa. When you communicate, you, as the sender, naturally expect a favorable response. For that to happen, you must ensure your message is clear and easy to understand. And your message will be easier to understand if you make it concise. You must deliver your message in the shortest (but complete) way possible. Clarity and conciseness are the hallmarks of an effective message. They help avoid ambiguity and confusion.
To ensure the success of the communication process, you also need to consider the factors that affect it. When the sender conveys the message and the receiver gives feedback, the environment or situation should be set to help the communication achieve its intended purpose. Dham (2023) explained how context and noise could disrupt the process of communication. He explained that the “context provides the backdrop against the communication. This includes the physical, social, psychological, and cultural environment in which the interaction occurs. Context influences how the message is interpreted and helps establish shared meanings between the sender and receiver. Noise, on the other hand, refers to any interference or distortion that affects the clarity of the message during the communication process. It can be external, such as background noise or technical glitches, or internal, such as language barriers, cultural differences, or emotional distractions. Minimizing noise is crucial to ensuring the message is accurately transmitted and received.”
Understanding how the process works is a prerequisite to effective communication. If you succeed in creating a synergy among the main elements of communication and are able to control the effects of the other factors, you will reap great dividends. It will enable you to deliver a message or convey information accurately and efficiently, ensuring mutual comprehension and avoiding misunderstanding.
Communicating effectively is as important as the other self-improvement skills you need to pursue success, happiness, and wealth. It is required when interacting with others in both professional and personal environments. Communicating effectively is an essential skill whose development you cannot take for granted. Through a good communication approach, effective and meaningful interactions can be effected.
Communication plays a fundamental role in both our professional endeavors and personal undertakings. Whatever those endeavors or undertakings may be, they all involve interpersonal relationships that can only be nurtured when we establish connections with other people.
On a personal level, we need to establish communication with our loved ones and friends. It helps build a stronger connection with them and resolve conflicts or disagreements. Effective communication is the foundation of successful friendships, including romantic relationships. It promotes intimacy, trust, and mutual understanding.
Any professional pursuits also require the development of the ability to communicate. You cannot find a job or succeed in business if you are incapable of self-expression. We have been told countless times that in order to succeed, we should be able to communicate.
In the workplace, effective communication plays a significant role. If you are a leader or manager of any enterprise, you must be ready to articulate the goals and objectives of the organization and make the members cooperate in their pursuit. The members should be provided with clear direction and motivation so they can all work together for the organization’s success. Teamwork and collaboration can be achieved through effective communication.
Even if you don’t like to work for any organization in the workplace and you’re planning to establish a business of your own or be a freelancer, you still need to develop the ability to communicate. Working alone, sometimes, means having to work harder. The business of selling products and services by yourself would require stronger efforts in persuading potential customers.
Effective communication is a prerequisite to any successful business endeavor, whether doing it with an organization or by yourself. Remember that it is also essential in the pursuit of happiness, for it helps build meaningful relationships.
_____
Dham, M. (2023). Elements of Communication Process. PrepBytes Blog. https://www.prepbytes. com/ blog /basics-of-communication/elements-of-communication-process/
The Tree That You Are and The Fruits That You Bear
Water the fruit trees, and don’t water the thorns.”
– Rumi
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.”
That one was from St. Luke, and it’s only one of the many quotes where trees and fruits are used figuratively to bring beauty to an idea that a writer or speaker wishes to convey, emphasize, and clarify.
Obviously, the “tree” in that bible verse refers to you and me. And what about the fruits? They are our thoughts, words, and actions and their outcomes. Could there be other fruits? I believe there’s none. The things we think, say and do and their eventual consequences or results are the fruits of the tree that we are. There’s nothing else that would come from us through which we can be judged or valued as a person.
We think (consciously or subconsciously) first before we say or do something. I refer to it as the “think-say-do” process. After processing an idea or a situation (or any other kind of stimulus) in our minds, we decide what actions to take or words to say thereafter. That’s our response. You may call it a decision.
“Each tree is recognized by its own fruits.” Thus, you should be careful of what you think and the decision you make afterward. They are manifestations of the kind of person you are… and have consequences or results. I don’t know if there can be an argument against that assertion.
You have first-hand knowledge of how you think and decide. You are aware of the kind of fruits you produce. What about their outcomes? The fruits you bear result in the reputation you build for yourself in the community where you belong and among your colleagues, peers, friends, and loved ones. Imagine reputation as the basket where your fruits – the decisions you made in the past – are stored. What people say (and think) about you is your reputation. Your reputation is the consequence of your speech and actions.
Sometimes, even if you say and do good and always try your best to make the right decisions, some people will treat you negatively. Don’t mind them. Their reactions are boomerangs that would harm them, not you.
Whatever you have accomplished at this stage in your life are also consequences of your past decisions. Your resume is also a basket of the fruits you produced. If people would scrutinize your resume, what would they see? What they see are your fruits. Success is one big and ripe apple in the apple tree. It is the end goal of all our personal and professional pursuits.
But there’s a fruit sweeter than success – happiness. That’s what simple people with simple dreams who don’t have a curriculum vitae to show try to grow in their tree. You would even hear people with grand dreams say they aim for success because they want to be happy. Their success is the source of their happiness, while for the simple folks I mentioned earlier, the simplicity of their life and desires makes them happy.
Reputation, success, and happiness – the products of the decisions you make – are the fruits of the tree you become.
The kind of fruits you would bear depends on the kind of tree you grow into. Good fruits will spring out of your branches and twigs if you are a good tree.
Bear in mind that you have control of the process of becoming who you are. Yes, no one else is in control of it. We call that process self-improvement. The tree that would sprout from that transformation is your “best self.”
Only when you become your “best self” that you will start bearing the good fruits.
The journey into becoming your “best self” begins with one simple step – rejecting any excuse to not become the tree you wish to be and bear the fruit you desire.
Education comes next. We nourish the tree called “self” through education. And it’s going to be long and tedious. It’s actually lifelong. Remember what Aristotle said, “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” But with education, I don’t mean just formal schooling. Schools are not the only place where learning can be had. Learning comes in many shapes and forms.
Learning makes you better than you were yesterday.
Sometimes we feel discouraged when all the efforts we put into self-improvement seemingly do not bear fruit. We need to be patient. Rousseau tells us that patience is bitter, but the fruit is sweet. Moliere added, “The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.”
There’s one more fruit that your tree will eventually bear – wisdom. You know it’s there when you realize that growing the tree is more exciting than harvesting its fruits. What you will become – your best self – is beyond your reputation, more glittery than success, and more overwhelming than happiness.
MAD’S Workshop
MAD’s Workshop is the new name of my other YouTube channel, the same name I adopted for my Facebook page, websites, and other social media platforms I am using. A workshop is a place where artists and artisans go to either create or hone their skills. My YouTube channels and websites are my workshops.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClipzKFSgZI-TwfR8gi88aA
This channel features my creative and academic works in English and Filipino. It is also one of the platforms I am using in sharing my expertise as a teacher as well as my experiences as an expat working and living in South Korea. I also post here videos of my lectures in subjects I teach and video recordings of my talks/speeches in seminars/conferences where I get invited as speaker/discussant/lecturer.
I have varied interests – language, literature, education, educational management, social sciences, research, and personal growth and development. I write stories, poems, essays, plays, academic and sports articles, movie reviews, and social commentaries. I also create videos for some of my written works in English and Filipino. They are the ones I publish on this channel. I also publish here the same videos I post on my other YouTube channel – “The Road to Self-improvement.”
THE ROAD TO SELF-IMPROVEMENT
After 365 days, my first YouTube channel – “The Road to Self-improvement” – attracted 366 subscribers only.. I would love to have more but my goal for putting up the channel is not to have as many subscribers as possible but to advance one of my advocacies – SELF-IMPROVEMENT.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2zzJ6T94fNnvPPwrA0OxAA
My goal with this channel is to make an appeal to viewers to embrace self-improvement as a way of reaching their full potential. I do believe that people will achieve success, have good overall health, and find happiness only when they become the best version of themselves. To strive to be the best one can be is a perfect duty toward oneself, family, and country.
I strongly believe that self-improvement is a prerequisite for national development. Only when citizens succeed in their personal undertakings and professional endeavors that they can contribute to the betterment of their country. The goal in the pursuit of personal undertakings is achieving good health, success, and happiness. For professional endeavors, it is to succeed in either work or business… or both. When people achieve their goals in both their personal undertakings and professional endeavors, there is no way for a country to go but be peaceful and progressive.
Some of my videos are delivered in Filipino because I intend to reach out to more of my countrymen and help raise among them an awareness of the importance of self-improvement.
What Makes You Happy?
A lot has already been written about happiness. Much has been said about how to achieve it and where to find it. It is my hope that the things I shared in this video would give you additional insights on the topic.
The Self-improvement Paradigm
According to Jim Rohn, “Success is not to be pursued, it is to be attracted by the person you become.” Imagine success as the fruit of a tree. A tree has to grow and mature. It will reach a certain stage of maturity that allows it to bear fruits. Imagine yourself as that tree. You have to grow and mature. The person you see at the end of the process of growing and maturing is what Jim Rohn refers to as the person you become. The fruits you bear or the success you achieve depends on the kind of tree you would turn into. And you have to become the best version of yourself. That’s the kind of tree you should be. You need to reach your full potential so you would bear the best fruits.
Self-improvement is the key to becoming the best version of yourself. If you succeed in getting to the end of the road to self-improvement, you reach your full potential.
But self-improvement is a complicated process. It is easier said than done. It requires the possession of certain beliefs, attitudes, and characteristics that will make up your value system. It requires also the acquisition of certain skills and abilities and the development of certain practices and habits.
The right beliefs, attitudes, characteristics, skills, abilities, practices, and habits, together, are the catalysts of self-improvement. However, having them is not enough. Something else is needed in order to make them work. Without it any attempt to reach one’s full potential is bound to fail. What is it? It’s self-discipline.
Self-improvement is not as simple as just being able to think positively. Positive thinking is but a tip of a huge iceberg called personal growth and development.
Self-improvement is a tedious process. Its ultimate goal is becoming the “best self” or achieving one’s full potential. As previously mentioned, certain beliefs, attitudes, characteristics, skills, abilities, practices, and habits are required. But possessing the said requirements is not enough. Consistency is needed in their pursuit. Thus, self-discipline is also needed.
The foregoing are the elements that comprise the self-improvement paradigm that I developed to guide my advocacy for personal growth and development.
The contents of my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2zzJ6T94fNnvPPwrA0OxAA) and the personal growth and development book I am currently writing are based on this paradigm.
The Road To Self-improvement: The Road Not Taken
The road to self-improvement is either not taken or the one less traveled because it is easier, if not intuitive for people, to be complacent. Well, according to scientists, we should blame our brains for this. (And this is where we’re good at – putting the blame on someone or something else.) They (the scientists) say that we are naturally wired to prefer either lying on the couch or sleeping. We are naturally lazy. We hate getting out of our comfort zones. We want things to be given to us on a silver platter…
M.A.D. LIGAYA
M.A.D. L I G A Y A 