10/23/17 - Starting goals
I am starting this blog to improve my writing, speaking and thinking skills. It is a belief of mine that the quality of one's thinking is reflected in the quality of their communications skills. Based on this belief and based on my own observations about my speaking skills, I've come to a troubling conclusion that my thoughts translate very poorly to persuasive communication.
My belief in the quality of my own thought has been severely challenged by this observation. One of the things I always held dear was my rationality and the clarity of the arguments I would make in my own head - and how I would constantly challenge my own views and force myself to come to independent, supported conclusions and position on issues that are important to me. However, as I've found myself struggling to articulate these positions. Examples of that include the Assessment forum last week with Sam Yoon and some of the other lawyers on the work that I have been doing and my conversation with Mike Engel last week on the state of the Assessment Review industry (granted I was tripping at the time).
I believe this is due to the amount of time which I spend on Reddit, and on social media platforms where long form discussion is not well received. As the content which I read becomes of poorer quality, I believe my own thoughts and my own communication is following suit. This is exacerbated by the fact that I was mostly a hermit the last few years - facing minor depression and social seclusion due to my difficulty in finding a job and from losing many friend from undergraduate due to my enrollment in law school. Frankly, in the last few years my lack of regular, in person social interaction (especially intellectual interaction rather than interest based - aka not squash) was unhealthily low. While I do not see this as a problem in of itself - I am worried that it has stunted or regressed by communication skills - and I am especially worried if that in turn, means my very thinking skills are regressing as well.
This journal is meant to address the lack of practice by forcing myself to write my thoughts out loud, in a form of persuasive writing on topics and issue which I find interesting/important to my life. I also expect this would serve a good repository of things to talk about in social situations that I find myself in in the future.
It is my personal goal to write at least 500 words every week day, and to read and write a comment on my previous day's writing every day.
I will commit myself to doing this for at minimum, 2 weeks. I will reassess at that point whether it has had any effect on my communication, and then modify my goals at that point.
My belief in the quality of my own thought has been severely challenged by this observation. One of the things I always held dear was my rationality and the clarity of the arguments I would make in my own head - and how I would constantly challenge my own views and force myself to come to independent, supported conclusions and position on issues that are important to me. However, as I've found myself struggling to articulate these positions. Examples of that include the Assessment forum last week with Sam Yoon and some of the other lawyers on the work that I have been doing and my conversation with Mike Engel last week on the state of the Assessment Review industry (granted I was tripping at the time).
I believe this is due to the amount of time which I spend on Reddit, and on social media platforms where long form discussion is not well received. As the content which I read becomes of poorer quality, I believe my own thoughts and my own communication is following suit. This is exacerbated by the fact that I was mostly a hermit the last few years - facing minor depression and social seclusion due to my difficulty in finding a job and from losing many friend from undergraduate due to my enrollment in law school. Frankly, in the last few years my lack of regular, in person social interaction (especially intellectual interaction rather than interest based - aka not squash) was unhealthily low. While I do not see this as a problem in of itself - I am worried that it has stunted or regressed by communication skills - and I am especially worried if that in turn, means my very thinking skills are regressing as well.
This journal is meant to address the lack of practice by forcing myself to write my thoughts out loud, in a form of persuasive writing on topics and issue which I find interesting/important to my life. I also expect this would serve a good repository of things to talk about in social situations that I find myself in in the future.
It is my personal goal to write at least 500 words every week day, and to read and write a comment on my previous day's writing every day.
I will commit myself to doing this for at minimum, 2 weeks. I will reassess at that point whether it has had any effect on my communication, and then modify my goals at that point.
As an addendum to my goals, I resolve to consciously read long form content more slowly and out loud in order to work on my physical articulation when communicating.
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