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2023

Let’s Play COMMUNICATES (Overcoming Obstacles)

February 2, 2023 //  by Preston Test//  Leave a Comment

When playing any game, you will come across some obstacles or challenges to overcome.

Even in the game of life, there have been times that you had to overcome obstacles or challenges because if everything was smooth sailing (as much as we think we want this), we would become bored and restless.

Do you remember playing any obstacle course game where you had to do challenging activities as you went throughout the course?

Of course, if there are too many obstacles or challenges that come our way, we wouldn’t mind if something went right to help us breathe through life a little easier.

And so just like in the game of life where there are obstacles and challenges, it’s the same way with the Communicates Warrior Game.

Sometimes general communication or a conversation will go smoothly or go better than expected, and at one point or another you will have to overcome obstacles or challenges in your communication.

No one can or will escape obstacles including heads of state, CEOs, CFOs, department leaders, etc.

What you do and how you overcome obstacles is how you play the Communicates Warrior game.

You can overcome obstacles by running and hiding.

You can choose to use humor if appropriate.

You can scrap it and start over by pivoting or rephrasing or delivering your message through a different tone or angle.

You can overcome obstacles by holding your composure or show your fiery side.

The obstacles that can occur in communication usually have to do with one of these areas:

  • Sharing ideas
  • Sharing opinions (differing opinions)
  • Differing perceptions
  • Judgement
  • And words and messages given by an individual.

Are you going to be a confident communicator that openly shares your ideas, opinions and perceptions while choosing the right words and messages? Will you be inclusive or form questions so that the discussion can be constructive with little to no arguments?

Are you going to stand your ground, be open to listen and agree to disagree when necessary?

Are you going to be the communicator who shares your thoughts, opinions, and ideas without caring how it sounds or the way it was delivered, making your only concern being that you shared, and you looked like the strongest and best in the room?

Are you going to hold back on sharing your ideas, thoughts and opinions and just listen, observe, process, and then determine whether or not to share? Perhaps you are a bit afraid of creating or being in a conflict or argument.

Or are you going to be the who is not afraid of creating or being in arguments, but prefer to avoid it, if possible, but when necessary will not shy away from conflicts, but also know when to back down?

So, when faced with the communication obstacle such as sharing ideas, opinions, differing perceptions, and so forth…

How are you going to show up and deal with these communication obstacles?

 

participants-in-obstacle-course-climbing-net

As mentioned in the previous blog, there are no good or bad communication characters because they are all necessary and play an important role.

Sometimes you need to be the arrogant character because you are speaking with another arrogant speaker, and you want to hold your ground.

Sometimes it is necessary to be the timid speaker and just observe, hear, and process everything before jumping in or reacting too quickly.


The Objective of the Game

The ‘winning’ objective is that you deal with the obstacles in the way that you want to.

If you wanted to share your ideas, opinions, and perceptions and felt that you did it in the way that you wanted to then it’s a win.

If you wanted to share your ideas, opinions, and perceptions, but held back or felt that you didn’t do it in a way that you would have liked then guess what?

You learned without losing.

Remember there is no losing in this game, only learning.

Learning points in this case might be why did you hold back? What are your fears? Why do have those fears? What went well and is worth keeping? What didn’t go well that you want to change? What can you do better next time?

You earn bonus points when you’re bold and step into the authenticity of the character you want to portray when dealing with the obstacles in your communication.

 

This is the Communication Warrior.

 

You know your way of overcoming obstacles…

Now Go Play and Have Fun Communicating!

If you’re an introverted, sensitive, conflict-phobic person who would love to become and feel like a communication warrior then click below to book your free Communication Breakthrough Session where we will discover 5 obstacles that is stopping your from becoming a communication warrior.

Book Your Session

Warm regards,

Grace CW Liu
Communication Navigator
W: GraceSOULutions.com

Category: 2023

Let’s Play COMMUNICATES (Choosing Your Character)

January 4, 2023 //  by Preston Test

It’s very likely you’ve played a variety of games and sports growing up.

At times you might feel that you are playing a much larger game called ‘The Game of Life’.

In this game of life, you’ve experienced some wins and some losses. Sometimes it was easy, and sometimes you faced some challenging obstacles that you worked hard to overcome.

There were moments you were bored and some moments where you had great adventures that you can now cherish as memories. You might’ve learned and found that playing the game of life is all about trying to have fun, and not to take things too seriously at times.

However, in some games there is a game within a game.

Within a game of life there is a game that I call ‘COMMUNICATES: Becoming A Communication Warrior’ (or COMMUNICATES for short).

In COMMUNICATES there are 12 different components and objectives that you go through.

So, each month I will share each of the components and objectives to becoming a communication warrior.

—

Setting up the Game In COMMUNICATES

First, to start any game we need to know the characters.

Board Game Pieces With Dice

C: Choose Your Character

When playing a game, you generally choose a character or game piece you want to play. Sometimes the character or game piece is chosen for you.

In this communication game you are the character, and you can choose how you want to play your character.

Sometimes due to the communication situation or the person you are speaking with, the character is chosen for you.

For example, perhaps you have in mind that you would like to be the confident speaker, but due to the conversation topic, situation or who you’re talking to, you have been put in the role of the timid character.

Depending on the communication situation and the other characters you interact with you can choose to be the peacemaker, negotiator, educator, the confident speaker, timid and shy, aggressor, and the list goes on.

And your specific role is chosen for you.

Just like in any game with pieces, there are no good or bad game pieces.

Therefore in the COMMUNICATES game there is no good or bad character.

All the characters are necessary and play an important part in communication. However, if you feel stuck playing a communication character that you don’t want to be, know that you can learn to shift out of that role.

For example, if you are usually shy and timid, feel stuck being shy and timid and would instead like to be a confident speaker, and don’t think you can or know how, know that you can shift out of the shy and timid communicator and be the confident speaker that you wish to be by being open-minded and be willing to have a growth mindset.

The first place to start is to think of a confident speaker you admire and start to mimic various gestures, words, and tonality that the speaker uses.

You are not going to copy the speaker you admire, but you can certainly borrow their gestures, words, and tone making them your own to help build your confidence.

If you’re not good at negotiating and would like to become a better negotiator, then you can follow some people who are good at negotiating or read books about it so you can start to emulate some of the words and actions to make them your own so you can then start becoming a better negotiator.

The point is that some people may have been born being able to speak confidently or be great negotiators, peacemakers or storytellers. Others became better at speaking confidently, negotiating, peacemaking, storytelling, etc. through coaching, practice, following some of the people they admire and borrowing from what they saw and learned.

The Communication Warrior did not happen overnight, but it did happen over time.

Whether you specifically chose the communication character or not, you can choose how you want to portray said character in your communication.

The Objective of the Game

The ‘winning’ objective is that you portray who you want to portray and you’re happy with the outcome.

In other words, if you are in a meeting and you want to portray a confident speaker who speaks up for your opinions, ideas, and confidently shares your thoughts with others in the room without worrying what they think, you can. If you feel you have succeeded in what you wanted to accomplish, then that is a win.

If you held back and wished you might have done some things differently, but overall felt good about it then it’s still a win.

If you totally held back, lost your nerve, and kept your opinions and ideas to yourself even though you wanted to share but were too afraid to, well guess what?

You learned without losing.

I should point out that in the communication game there’s winning and there’s learning (no losing in this game).

Learning points in this example might be why did you hold back? What are your fears? Why do have these fears? What can you do next time? What can you change?

You earn bonus points when you’re bold and step into the authenticity of the character you want to portray in your communication.

This is the Communication Warrior.

In the early part of the objective, you might have been timid and shy and wanted to change so you made a decision to stand up tall and straight, then you started to climb up the mountain by studying and practicing and you finally reached the mountain to become the Communication Warrior. The Communication Warrior communicates authentically their thoughts, feelings, and desires without feeling overwhelmed, overshadowed and overlooked.

You know your character…

Now Go Play and Have Fun Communicating!

If you’re an introverted, sensitive, conflict-phobic person who would love to become and feel like a communication warrior then click below to book your free Communication Breakthrough Session where we will discover 5 obstacles that is stopping your from becoming a communication warrior.

Book Your Session

Warm regards,

Grace CW Liu
Communication Navigator
W: GraceSOULutions.com

Category: 2023

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