Have a GREAT Conversation Today!

Whilst on our recent camping holiday, we spent precious time as a family chatting round the campfire – no internet, no TV and no interruptions!! We had some lovely evenings and great conversations, putting the World to right and chatting about the magnificence and mysteries of the Universe…

It highlighted to me how much time we spend rushing through our lives when we are at home, being distracted with technology, social media, work etc. without taking the time to have a deeper and more meaningful conversation.

You may not be able to sit round a camp fire for a chat with your family or work colleagues every day and with our increasing reliance on technology, it’s easy to get tied up in emails, text messages, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter….. and the list goes on! We often forget that we can actually have a REAL conversation instead.

Taking some time to  converse with family, friends and colleagues will enhance your relationships in work and at home. Although – Take Care – Don’t get smoke in your eyes!!

When you go to send your next text/email message – ask yourself first whether it would be ‘Good to Talk’ instead…

Each day, try to:

• Put the technology to one side for a few minutes and take time out to have a conversation with someone!
• Dig that little bit deeper asking ‘How, What, When, Where, Who’ type questions to move below the surface of what someone tells you initially…
• Listen carefully – you may be surprised by what you hear…

It may mean getting up and walking a few meters across the office to chat to a colleague rather than sending an email or picking up the phone to have a chat with a friend rather than always sending a text message.

You can’t beat that ‘face to face’ conversation as it’s easy to miss the ‘essence’ of what someone wants to communicate, when we can’t see their body language and I’m sure we’ve all experienced those ‘confusing’ messages that we receive by email and text etc. because we’ve misunderstood or misinterpreted the message that we’ve received – or indeed that our message sent has been misread!

Technology can still have a place in enhancing our ‘distance’ relationships if we use Facetime, Skype etc. to maximise the ‘face to face’ conversations.

And then of course – Remember: