Communicating Should Be Easier, Right?

by Michele Boy | October 20, 2022

Welcome to western Kansas where it is 26 degrees at night and 85 in the daytime. I went for a walk with my dogs and a good friend. I wore four layers on top and two on bottom, a hat and a hoodie. 
By the time I returned home I was shedding the layers and deciding what season I was going to dress for the rest of the day.
I have been thinking a lot about how we communicate with each other - with our families, employees, friends.
We have so many incredible tools to communicate faster, easier, and more efficiently. Yet I think we are more disconnected, less engaged with each other and sloppy at talking and communicating.
  For example, my husband and I have been married 17 years. You would think we have communicating down, right? Nope. 
We buy livestock feed. I pay right away. He has them bill us.
I thought he was paying right away. He thought we were “charging” it. 
 Charging to me meant putting it on my credit card. It did not with him. 
When I went to pay the late bill, completely embarrassed, the woman at the counter laughed. They have the same issue with multiple husbands and wives.
 I felt a little better, relieved we worked through it and now understand each other about this issue, today, I think. LOL.
  So how are you doing at your job, with your employees, with your partner or children?
Are you meeting them where they are at?  Checking in to see how it’s going?
 Someone in your life is not hearing what you are saying, mishearing you, or you are communicating poorly. 
So I am asking you, are you willing to look within?
   Are you  learning to communicate? If someone is offering help are you willing to take it? 
I took an interpersonal communications class in college. The subject is something I am passionate about. So many times the struggle is in the details. The goal isn’t to be perfect. I think it’s to admit to ourselves where we are lacking, ask for help, and grow a stronger team by building each other up. That doesn’t always mean sunshine and rainbows. But I do think it means connecting and supporting each other.  
Relationships growing stronger means getting real and growing through struggles. 
 But there is also the people that refuse. The ones who don’t need help or don’t want help. The people that can only see where you are wrong. And don’t want to grow. 
I wasted so many years of my life with someone who wasn’t interested in growing. He saw it as a game to see how far he could push me. 
 So no this isn’t for everyone. But I would bet for the most part, people want to commuicate better, want stronger relationships. 
 I read a saying I liked a lot - “No matter how educated, talented, rich or cool you believe you are, how you treat people ultimately tells all. Integrity is everything.”
And we all get it wrong sometimes, do you have the courage to love them anyway?