I realize it’s 2 weeks past ‘resolution’ day’. I mentioned on my new years day post that I don’t do resolutions, only commitments. ‘Taking stock’ days like the 1st of January are very useful as they get me to think of commitments I must make to myself.
I’ve done this in the past with varying degrees of success. That said, I had a traditionally machine gun approach to these things – take many shots, expect one to hit. I remember making a 5 trait improvement initiative on my birthday 3 years ago, creating an over matrixed excel sheet to track my performance that lasted 15 days.
(Ha! I managed to dig up the sheet)
As you can see, I wasn’t all that consistently positive or reliable by my own assessment in 2009. I’m happy to note that that has changed.
One of the benefits of transitioning from machine gun to sniper in the way I approach things is that I’m realizing the importance of doing one thing, and nailing it. So, I had a bunch of improvement ideas in the new year and it took me two weeks to bring it down to one.
And that one is what I call ‘Voice Control’.
A certain wiser friend identified this as a high potential area. What I love about it is that it is a potential area of strength that just needs work (read: lots of work). For those I haven’t met, I have a very loud voice. And there’s no exaggeration in the ‘very’. And, if you ever get me engrossed in a conversation or topic that excites me, then god bless you. I would practically be screaming the roof off. The intent, of course, is not to scream. My excitement takes over and I never realize I’m screaming until I’m told.
This wiser friend put it best (paraphrased)
If you can take control and learn to modulate your voice while speaking so you truly emphasize things that you are excited about i.e. if you use the power in the voice to only highlight what’s important, it would put your point across much much stronger.
Right now, it feels like you’re excited about everything. This may be the case but, to the person sitting opposite you, it’s hard to distinguish between things you care about and things you don’t. There’s immense power in modulating your voice and using pauses.
This is one of those things I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do. It’s a challenge I’ve faced with energy. With all the effort that’s gone into managing my energy over the past 2 years, I tend to have a fair amount of it and this is of no use if I don’t learn to channel it. I’m glad that that’s going much better than my voice.
This learning is also part cultural. Western society does tend to be softer, especially in business settings. And I’m glad I’m having a shot at testing this out this year
All in all, I’m very excited. I have one personal development/trait commitment to myself for 2012 – To have full control of my voice by the end of the year. I’m not underestimating the difficulty of this commitment. I’ve already put in a ‘Modulate voice’ task on my daily task list so I can remind myself of it every single day. It’ll take will power, self awareness and some mental hard work to get there. Oh, and I also expect to fail many many many times..
That said, I also hope to keep this commitment and write about my success controlling my voice by this time next year. Here’s to that!
‘Let the one who will move the world, first move himself’.’ | Aristotle
A Learning a Day 