I have what may be bad news for you: better conversations start with you.
They start with the conversations you have with yourself, with that rotten-tomato-throwing peanut gallery in your head that’s constantly on the alert for any mistake it thinks you’ve made.
The peanut gallery holds us back from acknowledging ourselves for our success, it hates the loneliness of having opinions others don’t share, and it always thinks we could do better.
When we learn to manage the internal debate, we begin allowing ourselves to be the brilliantly flawed humans that we all are.
And then we come closer to allowing others to be who they are. We come closer to accepting the fact that someone else’s disagreement isn’t a threat to us or to what we believe.
The benefits of having better conversations with yourself are immense.
Because when you stop having those internal rotten tomato fights about whether you’re “good enough” … you’re a much happier person. You’re much more fun to be around. You’re far more likely to succeed at what matters most to you.
And that leads to better conversations for everyone.