The Secret to Articulation

I have finally cracked the code on how to articulate myself well. The secret: You need to be 100% present in the moment and pay an enormous amount of attention to the person you’re talking to and what you’re saying. Before this revelation, I was never really present in the moment. I would talk to someone. I would look them in the eye and my face would be facing them. I’d be having some hand motions, but I wasn’t really there. I was thinking about something else; my mind was wandering.

Sometimes I was distracted by my acne. Maybe it’s hot outside and the sun is beating on my face and I’m beginning to sweat so I’m worried about that. Or maybe I gotta take a shit and my stomach’s growling. I’m not there, and that’s the reason why I wasn’t articulating myself because I wasn’t focused on what I was saying. I was just moving my mouth and sounds were coming out.

Now I realized after re-listening to Sam Harris’ podcast a dozen times that you really need to pay attention to the world around you. You need to look at the person’s eyes and not just look at them, but to understand them. That’s what really changed everything. I don’t say “um” or “ah” anymore or, I rarely do. I also have a stronger train of thought. While I am writing this diary entry, I’m not actually writing, I’m actually talking so all of this is just for my mouth, and although I’m using Wispr Flow, which automatically removes all the “ums”, “ahs”, and “likes”, I do find myself not saying those anymore, and I’m happy.

So the core lesson is that the more you pay attention, the better your interactions are, the more concise and aware you are of what is happening around you, and that’s very important.