Can You Speak More Clearly?

Last week, I started a post about the importance of communication.  Life, as it is prone to do at times, got in the way, and prevented me from jumping in again until today.  So we're off once again.

Words carry a great deal of meaning.  In fact, words carry so much meaning that, at times, one word can actually mean several different things.  If you doubt this, go look in a dictionary sometime.  You will often find several different, though related, senses in which the word can be used.  And that right there points us to a communication challenge.  How are the words that I am using being understood by the other?

There have been many times in my life where I thought I was laying things out perfectly clear, only to have someone misunderstand what I said.  While there likely were ways that I hadn't thought things through clearly, I've noticed that it sometimes happens because the words that I used aren't the clearest, or can carry different senses that distract from what I am trying to say.  I try to make those words as clear as possible, but you simply cannot say something in such a way that it cannot be misunderstood.

Can you speak more clearly?  Truly, I think we all strive to do that.  I think we want others to understand what we are trying to say as clearly as possible.  And I have come to believe that our communication gaps often happen, not because we didn't express ourselves clearly, but because what we said was understood in a different way by the person doing the hearing.  If we say one thing, but they hear it as something different from what we intend, we have a gap in communication that needs to be bridged.