My Truth or Your Truth?

We all know the importance of good and effective communication. Something happened yesterday evening that brought out this aspect beautifully.

I was playing with my daughter in my garden. After a round of playing tag, Frisbee and football, it was time to cool off. The daughter being extremely fond of flowers started plucking a few. In the process, she had plucked out a few buds in addition to blossomed ones. I asked her to leave the buds alone since they would blossom into flowers. She was alright picking up the flowers instead.

From where I was standing I could see some flowers ready to be plucked. Whereas her location made it difficult for her to see the flowers I was seeing. She was finding it difficult to locate a few flowers to pluck – she could only see buds. She did spot a few flowers eventually but still not the ones that I saw and believed to be more accessible. It is at that moment my wife said “Your truth is different to her truth”. There it dawned upon me. I was working myself up on such a small thing but it had such a wider implication. If only we could develop our capacity to see things from others point of view, we would be so much more understanding. It would help us have stronger and positive relationships with friends, family and co-workers.

Lessons:

You may be seeing the same thing from a different viewpoint. Successful communicators seek to understand differing view points after all your truth is different from their truth.

Greater understanding will help you empathize with the other party and enable you to gain his trust and confidence. First step to have a successful relationship be it work or personal.