Satisfactions
by
Book Details
About the Book
Links below
will take you to the non-profit Break the Cycle! Web site (formerly "Stepfamily inFormation"). Use your
browser´s "Back" button to return to the Xlibris.com bookstore.
Seven Essential Skills This unique guidebook describes and illustrates seven vital communication skills that any motivated
person can learn, with practice. They are:
Effective
assertion,
Metatalking (talking cooperatively about communication),
Premise:
From newborn infants to dying adults, we all communicate to reduce local discomforts - i.e. to "fill current needs." Doing that promotes
satisfaction. Anything you do that causes a significant
emotional-spiritual-physical-mental change in another person can be called communication.
It´s impossible to "not communicate" with other people, for silence and inactivity cause reactions and presumed meanings.
The quality of your life and key relationships depends largely on the effectiveness of the way you communicate - yet you probably
don´t know what you need to know about this vital life skill. To reality check that, mull these five
challenges:
1) Name a learned skill that you rely on more often than
communicating to get your key needs met. Note that thinking is
internal communication.
2) How do you distinguish between effective and ineffective communication? If
you´re not sure, how can you tell if you´re communicating effectively in
important
situations?"
3) On a scale of 1 (totally ineffective) to 10 (totally effective), generally how effective a communicator would you rate yourself in calm times __ and in conflicts __ recently?
4) Identify the five most important people in your current life. From 1 to 10, how effective would you rate yourself in your communication with each of them in calm __ and conflictual __ times? How effective would each of them rate you?
5) Take your time, and
see how well you do
with this
communication quiz. Then return.
Would you like to improve your communication effectiveness with others and yourself?
About the Author
Peter has spent over 17,000 hours in clinical, phone, and classroom consultation with members of ~1,000 typical Midwestern divorced families and stepfamilies since 1981. He is an invited member of the Stepfamily Association of America Board of Directors.