How do you START to say something?

Last time, I talked about people wanting to communicate, wanting to get something across, but not sure if what they had to offer was valuable…a sales package, an essay, a blog post, a possible conversation with someone, a letter, an email, a poem, a novel, a play…

So, if you have a gap between the urgent need or wish to communicate something and the doubt you have about whether what you have to say is worthwhile, important, or potentially of interest to a recipient, then you have a maximum amount of stress at the “point of entry”.

How do you bridge that gap?

Well, it can start with intimates that you trust, to broach something. But that approach is not the failsafe that you might think it is. Imagine how devastating it might be if someone you really care about trashes an “approach”? You are almost better trying things out on strangers.

But let’s forget the recipient for a moment, because it’s your identification with the recipient, rather than with yourself, that’s creating the gap we spoke about above.

Your need to communicate is at least as important as anyone else’s need who has already succeeded.

So, how to begin? Let’s see.

The first thing? Let it all hang out.

That’s right, just let it go, don’t worry about it being good, bad, indifferent, important, just pick your topic and write EVERYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF CONCERNING IT, WITHOUT ONE BIT OF EDITING.

Plenty of time to do that later.

Let’s repeat that.

Just pick your topic and write EVERYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF CONCERNING IT, WITHOUT ONE BIT OF EDITING.

Or, to put it another way, imagine that, instead of writing something that uses you at the source, imagine that what you’re pouring out is simply channeling something from outside you, some force that’s bigger than you. If you allow yourself to permit that “useful fiction”, you can get away from self-blame, self-consciousness, self-criticism, and just get it out there.

Not only will you get more good stuff out there in this wildly uninhibited ‘first pass”, the good news is that the editing will be much easier…why? Because you’ll find it’s must easier to delete material than it is to come up with it in the first place, so if you provide much more than you need, you’ve just made it all so much easier.

Okay, but what if what you want to express is more oral than written? Well, you still need to start somewhere, and writing it out is the best way to do start that. Once you’ve done the “draft”, as if it’s a letter, or some sort of written piece, when you are sure you have the essentials, begin to practice speaking it out loud. Know the material cold, get rid of as much of the written aids as you can, limit yourself to 3 x 5 cards, and refer to them less and less. Lock yourself in a private place and speak it again and again.

See how long it takes, just so you know and can plan sales calls and speeches accordingly.

Once you get more and more familiar with this subject matter, you’ll make the transitions and the personalizations for particular audiences on the fly as you present this material more and more often. You won’t worry about being interrupted with questions, because you’ll have “owned” the material and feel good about it as a result.

Still skeptical?

Wondering how to tap into that “vein” out there that’s bigger than you are?

Stay tuned.