If I was a parrot, you'd be my favourite cracker. Oh, snap. :) Come here, you.
I once knew a man who could speak for days. He was the sort of person who loved my company as I listen quite well. There is an old saying which is that the best friends are the best listeners. For me the best speakers make the best friends. I love a deep conversation and most of all I love listening to people who speak with passion. If their eyes light up, I am all ears.
It is not what you say, but how you say it. Those who speak well, speak with conviction. They genuinely believe what they say, they mean it, and their heart is in it. They have an emotional connection with what they recall. People follow emotions faster than they follow words. Comedians are great examples of this. It is not so much the punch line itself, but the way it is delivered. Politicians avoid complex language when they want to win over an audience. Keep it simple, but most of all, keep it emotional. I can write you an essay on how I can improve the United States, but if Obama speaks a single word three times "Change", "Change" and "Change" again, my essay is redundant. Our attention spans have decreased rapidly since the rise of television. We no longer have the patience to read long drawls of text. Our ego's want the information now: they want the emotional thrill as soon as possible. So let us feel more and think less.
We must realize that there are a thousand ways to say something. This is a great exercise for writers, actors and public speakers. It is all in the frequency and intonation of the voice. Many of us are speaking in a monotone, everyday tongue. The drone or the murmur. We have a tone for our friends, a tone for our family, a tone for our boss and co-workers. These are the sort of voices that have no risk of backfire. At the same time they make us damn boring :). We all fall prey to it. In the shop over the till, or at work on the telephone. We are barely opening our mouths. I agree that there are times when a professional frequency is the most appropriate, but arguably 90% of the time we should be pushing our boundaries. We can tone our voice down to create tension, we can speed it up for excitement, we can whisper to create yumminess, and we can even sing and shout out loud to make people smile. We forget that the voice is an instrument, the pinnacle of our expression. I feel that the more that we can use it's full range, the more confident we become as human beings. It was meant to be used this way. So, the next time you make a sandwich, tell someone about it. If you change up the way you say it, believe me, they will listen to you no matter what. They will listen, because although they've heard you before, they've never heard you say it that way, before.
Oscar Wilde nailed it on the head:
'Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.'
Our words are borrowed, the English language is a graveyard of dead metaphors, and we are all starting to sound the same. Can you think of a friend who genuinely sounds unique? I previously blogged on how culture is not our friend and this is a great example of how television, film, and friends shape your vocabulary. You speak the sum of the five people you spend the most time with. Even the intellectuals all seem to speak the same way. Original thought is essentially borrowed from some guy that most people haven't heard of. There is nothing wrong with this. Originality to me, is recycled perfection. The truth is that there is an ocean of ideas that are open to everyone to take from. The language and times may change, the explanation or format different, but the truth remains the truth. We can all find our own words and ideas by going within ourselves and becoming producers again. Create your own nicknames for people, come to your own views about the world, disagree with me if you have to, but start to create your own reality. It doesn't matter if you think no-one will want to listen. At the end of the day, speak for yourself. Your voice is your voice, and what you say is valuable purely because it comes from you.
Also, if you ever happen to have an argument with a woman, remember that even if she is talking bad about you, she is still talking about you. Food for thought.
Have a great weekend :).
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