My daughter was miffed when I picked her up from the bus stop yesterday with Nicki the dog sitting in the backseat.
Bad moods after school aren’t unusual. But the first words out of her mouth were.
"See, she IS pink!" she hissed.
Turns out, she and some kids got into a mock-argument during biology class over whose dog was the cutest. They compared names, the tricks the pooches performed, and their coloring.
“My dog is black, white, and pink!” she announced proudly.
Well apparently, the other kids didn’t buy that. They snickered. “Dogs can’t be pink unless you dye their fur,” they insisted.
“I tried to tell them!” she said with a huff, pointing to Nicki’s face. And my chest tightened. I really felt her in that moment.
Have you ever described a picture that’s crystal clear in your mind that others couldn’t see, no matter how hard you tried?
Did people dismiss, tease, disbelieve, look at you skeptically, or kindly try to hide their confusion when this happened?
How did that make you feel?
I don’t think we talk enough about what it’s like for our words to fall short of what’s in our hearts and minds’ eyes.
It stings (A LOT). It’s frustrating and embarrassing. It eats away at our confidence and even breeds self-doubt.
“I can see being doubted made you feel crappy. It’s hard to talk to another person’s imagination sometimes,” I said.
Whether you're a high schooler, teacher, engineer, artist, parent, healer, spouse, designer, or organizational leader, communicating is a big part of how you get important things to happen. People spend a lot of time trying to agree on things we can’t hear, smell, touch or show each other.
Communicating with words is hard work and you do it every day. You make it look easy. It’s not.
And also, it’s okay if communication fails at times. It’s even more okay to ask for help. It’s near impossible to see what’s causes misunderstandings and and find tweaks without the support of a caring listener.
If you have a side-hustle, a business within a business, a book or movie, an event, a different role in your organization, a garden, or a sane family routine—anything you deeply desire at risk of not coming across to others the way you intended, let me be by your side.
Together, we’ll draw out the words inside you and put it on paper or a digital platform of your choice.
I’ll hold your hand if words fail you and help you try again. I’d love to be your coach and advocate.
