Descriptive Reflection: Strengths and Challenges in Communicating
When I was younger, I always had trouble with communication. It has affected many interactions with my friends and family. I was very reserved and would not speak much. Even when I did attempt to communicate, I would mumble to myself. Most people would ask me to repeat myself as they would have trouble hearing what I said. This reaction will decrease my confidence in the current conversation and I would drop the conversation abruptly or as soon as an opportunity presented itself. As I got older, I realized that it was not sustainable as communication is a vital skill. It is crucial to have good relations and communication with my friends and family. Without good communication, many misunderstandings will occur, and interactions will become more stressful and difficult.
Currently, I notice that my communication strength is the confidence I have during speaking. I still fall back to my previous poor speaking habits from time to time but I am no longer heavily disheartened when I make a mistake during a conversation. Instead, if any person mentions it, I see it as feedback to improve the current and future interactions.
Although I have improved my interactions with my current friends and family, I still suffer from starting new conversations with strangers and conversing in bigger groups. I get very cautious and self-aware when speaking in these scenarios because I am still not aware of their preferences and I do not want to overstep or make a mistake and give off a poor impression. It results in me not speaking or contributing very little to the conversation and could still be perceived as a poor impression.
Therefore by the end of this module, I want to achieve the techniques to strike friendly conversations with new people and communicate confidently in groups. I believe accomplishing these two objectives will be greatly beneficial to many aspects of my life.
Currently, I notice that my communication strength is the confidence I have during speaking. I still fall back to my previous poor speaking habits from time to time but I am no longer heavily disheartened when I make a mistake during a conversation. Instead, if any person mentions it, I see it as feedback to improve the current and future interactions.
Although I have improved my interactions with my current friends and family, I still suffer from starting new conversations with strangers and conversing in bigger groups. I get very cautious and self-aware when speaking in these scenarios because I am still not aware of their preferences and I do not want to overstep or make a mistake and give off a poor impression. It results in me not speaking or contributing very little to the conversation and could still be perceived as a poor impression.
Therefore by the end of this module, I want to achieve the techniques to strike friendly conversations with new people and communicate confidently in groups. I believe accomplishing these two objectives will be greatly beneficial to many aspects of my life.
I can relate about not speaking up much in a new conversation and possibly giving a poor impression. I feel that we need to practice believing in the ideas we are going to share, else we might miss out on giving out a good suggestion that could benefit the group during a discussion. I am sure you can accomplish your goals, all the best :)
ReplyDeleteI do feel that sometimes you speak rather softly, but in my opinion, it's only a matter of volume coz you do have good talking points and contents, etc. I use to have very serious social anxiety and didn't reach out to others - something which I still regret to this day coz I missed so many opportunities. I too decided to improve and it's much better now. But sometimes just like you, I still fell back into the old habits of feeling inferior and socially awkward but that's alright. We learn from our past. So it's really good that you no longer feel disheartened about it. I like this quote from Charlie Chaplin "We think too much and feel too little" - some things does not have right or wrong, it's only meant to be experienced. And I think in some ways communication is like that, no right or wrong, just gotta put ourselves out there and feel it/experience it and cherish it coz life does not rewind - the girl I was too shy to talk to years ago remains a stranger today and what a tragedy that was XD
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