Ponder Place

Hailing back to the days that were the era of the Tower Of Babel. When the foolishness of men drove them to pursue a forced presence with their divine creator; they were cursed with a confusion of tongues. After being scattered and each group having their own language; confusion in communication from person to person increased substantially.

Unfortunately this is really the dominate class of communication barrier that is addressed when looking at conflicts of communication.

The one I’d like to address today is the mindset communication barrier. Or otherwise the problem is not the sounds we make or the words we can form with our physical tongue. It’s the mindset. The predetermined outcome we automatically (and generally subconsciously) determine for a given communication (situation).

This is why there is a saying, and I may be making this up, but your attitude determines the outcome.

Its not the attitude that is going to create success per se. Its the internal mechanics of the human brain, and the persons personality, that when paired with the proper attitude will play host to an environment of success.

Lets run some scenario’s. We are going to take the same person, who’s name is George, and put him in two separate situations, demonstrating the varied outcome.

George is at the airport waiting for a flight to visit his relatives. While waiting for his flight a fellow traveler (Brett) starts up conversation with George. The conversation goes something like this…

Brett: My name is Brett, what’s yours?
George: My name is George.
*handshake ensues*
Brett: Where you headed.
George:
Brett: Family?
George: Yup
Brett: Well nice to meet you
George: *polite smile*

Now the second scenario.

George is at the airport waiting for a flight to visit his relatives. While waiting for his flight a fellow traveler (Brett) starts up conversation with George. The conversation goes something like this…

Brett: My name is Brett, what’s yours?
George: My name is George, where are you headed?
Brett: Oh I’m headed out to for a company meeting.
George: Oh really, what do you do for a living?
Brett: I run the marketing department for Publishing Inc.
George: Well that’s interesting. I have a book I’m hoping to get published.
Brett: Really? Well what’s it about?
George: [yada yada, a short time later]
Brett: Well here’s my business card, give me a call when your ready to publish and we’ll talk.

This is the part where the lovers (in this case not lovers, but business opportunists) ride off into the sunset. Which they didn’t actually do, but its a figure of speech suggesting that George successfully published his book through Brett’s publishing company. Which netted him millions of dollars.

The differences between the two scenarios are subtle. And they reflect the different possible outcome of any giving scenario (communication) with another person based on George’s mindset.

In the first scenario George has a negative outlook (on life). Thus George automatically treats Brett as though he was unfriendly — even though Brett is friendly — George’s closed response does not allow any room for Brett to prove that he is friendly.

In scenario two, George has the mindset of success. This is a more open mindset, simply because we are more upbeat when pursuing things we like/want. Which led George into being proactive with Brett, which resulted in the book being published.

This all to demonstrate how much of a difference our mindset can make in our daily lives. It’s the difference between using the handle that is built into every door, or trying to throw yourself at the door to force it open. Problem is the doors are reinforced and very difficult to break through. Having an open mindset simply makes things we want come more easily.

A common folly with people who display a positive outlook is that they are not always genuine. This is a problem because when push comes to shove, the required action depends on that genuine desire. If the desire is not there, it’s like a pyro with a torch but no forest to burn down, very disappointing.

And that just won’t do.