Make Your Purpose Purposeful - Grasshopper

Do you know someone who walks into a room talking, oblivious of who’s in the room or what’s going on? I confess that I occasionally exhibited that behavior in the past. It took a 6-word question from someone to get me to recognize my lack of awareness and change it.

The question was: “What is your purpose in speaking?”

 

Before that, I would sometimes blather without purpose. Just saying aloud what has popped into your mind is not purposeful.

 

This doesn’t mean to weigh everything you have to say; it’s just a reminder to have a purpose before letting those thoughts out.

 

Is your purpose to comfort someone with your words or is it to refute someone’s assertion? There has to be some purposeful pre-thought or you may do neither. If you want to avoid wandering into the wacky world of worthless word salad, have a purpose.

 

Again, this is not about measuring your words; it’s about your purpose in saying them.

 

If your only purpose is to hear yourself speak, it’s best to turn off your speaker. No one wants to hear that song.

 

Give your thoughts a track to run on and then even your spontaneous thoughts will dovetail into your purpose.

 

We used to have a saying in radio: One thought per set. That meant when it was your turn to speak, to cover only one major topic. It gave you a framework (purpose) for that talk break. When you don’t have a purpose in speaking, you’ll be all over the map and cause people to tune you out.

 

Want to say more with less? Have a purpose!

 

All the best,

John