Effective Communication: The Pathway To Strong Relationships by Daniel Turner & Marc Lindsay

If I could sum up my views on communication, it would be this: "Communication is the result you get."

What this means, is that if someone has totally understood your point, and can explain back to you what you just said in their own words, you've communicated effectively.

I'm sure you're familiar with this kind of scenario...

You've sat down to have a conversation with your wife/husband, friend, colleague, boss...whoever, and no matter how hard you try, what you are saying is just totally misconstrued and misunderstood by them.

Or is it?

You see, when you look at communication as "the result you get", which is the essence of this principle, what this principle does, is give you ownership over the interactions with other people in your life.

It eliminates the need to walk away from someone and say "they don't understand me!" and transforms it to an element of power, in the shape of "they aren't understanding what I'm saying, how can I explain it in a way that makes sense to them".

Instantly this gives you back the power you would have normally lost.

Now, am I saying that this is easy? No, effective communication is one of the hardest principles to follow, and has to be constantly worked at.

What it all boils down to, is think about it from the other person's perspective, and constantly be asking yourself the question "how can I say this in a way that they will understand".

The Principle Of Time Consciousness by Daniel Turner & Marc Lindsay

I have often been called a time miser, someone that has such a high regard of time, I value it above almost all else.

This is very cliché, but it is also very true, that TIME is truly the only finite resource that we as human beings have.

Did you hear that? That was another 5 seconds passing, 5 seconds you'll never get back.

Does that mean that you only care about getting the job done in the shortest possible time? No absolutely not, you must enjoy the journey, enjoy the process, but it also means that you should question the work and activities that you do, who you spend time with, and what you choose to do.

There is actually in my opinion 4 levels of time, at least what I have discovered up until this point in my life journey.

When you are at level 1, you are merely existing, going through the motions, at some point your dreams died, and with them your drive to achieve them. Maybe they were crushed, maybe they were just thrown out as being "too hard" or "people like me can't do that", but the end result is that this is one of the saddest events in the world, and it takes a significant even to break someone out of this apathy.

Level 2 is when you are aware of time, but you are not time-conscious (sounds like a contradiction). It means that you 'know' that you need to be aware of time, but your actions dictate otherwise. You'll spend time in forums, surfing the web, and watching TV, basically wasting time doing activities that are not really going to help you.

Levels 1 and 2 are where the majority of the human race is at, either their dreams have been shattered, or they haven't figured it out, and by figured it out I mean embodied it, that their actions dictate their results.

Level 3 is where you are aware of time, and of being efficient, and are working towards working on purely efficient and effective activities. Those things that are going to be moving you towards your end result. You will probably spend minimal time doing activities that don't propel you forward, though you will feel you haven't yet reached your 'limit'.

Level 4 puts you into a challenging position. You have become aware of what I like to call true opportunity cost. Literally, if you spend time doing one activity, you lose the time to do the other activity, and you are forced to choose between the greater of 2 ideas or activities.

It's not just activities, but people too. This is a hard reality to face, and I hated facing it when I first came across it, but you literally cannot help everyone in the world. At this point, you'll start to question what you are doing, because you will be pushing your own boundaries on what you can accomplish, and if there is a Level 5, it isn't so much a new level, but application of both Level 4 time, and leverage.

This has been a pretty heavy lesson, and you may need to re-read it, but it's something you should apply. Look at every activity you do during the day (hint, keep a log or a journal), and ask yourself, is this worth my time?