Stage 4 Thor

I am still determining where most of the world's problems lie, but if I had to take a guess, my first choice would be the breakdown of interpersonal communication.   Ineffective communication has hampered me throughout my life, and while my intentions were often good, the way I communicated them to others fell short.  I would be willing to bet that if you consider any argument or disagreement you have had with an employer, spouse, or friend, you would find that the breakdown of interpersonal communication was likely the crux of the issue.   Ironically, before I reevaluated this, I would have considered myself a good, if not great communicator.  I have been a successful salesperson and my ability to articulate my thoughts isn't too shabby.  With all that said, I was, and am still at times, a poor communicator. For starters, communication is a whopping 93% non-verbal.  So whatever delusions I had about my proficiency with the English language it was...

  The words a speaker uses to communicate are only a small part of his overall efforts. The pitch and tone of his voice, the speed and rhythm of his spoken words, and the pauses between those words may communicate more than words alone. Furthermore, his gestures, posture, pose, and expressions typically convey a variety of subtle messages. These nonverbal elements can provide important clues to the speaker's thoughts and feelings, substantiating or contradicting the speaker's words. Prof. Albert Mehrabian of the University of California, Los Angeles, conducted the most frequently and casually cited study on the relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages in personal communication. His studies in the 1970s suggested that we overwhelmingly deduce our feelings, attitudes, and beliefs about what someone says based on the speaker's body language and tone of voice rather than the actual words were spoken. Prof. Mehrabian calculated that words, tone of voice, and body lan...