Expanding Our Resources

A major characteristic of communication is that it is reactive. Looking at my own actions or things I say, for instance, and I see a person that spends the bulk of his time responding in some way to what goes on around him or to what others have said. In this regard, at least, I do not see myself as being all that different than any one else. This, of course, is not to say I and others are not capable of original thought or of taking actions that are truly our own. We are. At the same time, even those steps we view as being our own do not happen in a vacuum.  Often, they are inspired by what we have seen or heard others say or do.

On the surface, the choice I made today as to what to wear was mine. Yet my decision was influenced by what I call outside forces: the weather, my itinerary, what others I will be connecting with today may be wearing, and even how I am feeling physically. I examined these outside influences and for  better or worse made the choices I made. While I feel as if I made a good choice, I recognize others may see me today and think otherwise. In essence, they will be judging my reaction to various outside sources such as the weather forecast or my itinerary. I recognize this is a trivial example. But it represents a larger point regarding our communication decisions and choices.

Any choices we make in how and what we communicate verbally and non-verbally are going to be assessed and judged by others on some level. Given that, it behooves us to make the best choices we can. One key way to do that is draw from the widest spectrum of resources and outside influences as we can. If our choices or outside influences are limited, then in all likelihood whatever decisions we do make will be less apt to be of note, be creative or exhibit much originality. As communicators devise various strategies to promote something, it is important they make their range of influencing factors and resources as wide as possible. Doing so is apt to make them better communicators.