Do you have bad habits when you speak English?
We all have bad habits.
We may even have things that we do that we’re not even aware of at times.
You might not realize it, but some of these habits can keep us from speaking English the way that we want to.
Today we’ll show you three bad habits that are preventing you from becoming a great communicator.
We’ll also show you what to do to make these habits stop.
Bad Habits Prevent Connection
Though we all acknowledge that we have bad habits, you might not think that they are a big deal.
There are however some small habits that can hold us back from articulating when we already have the English to use.
If we were to just change these small habits it could make a huge difference.
It could ultimately help us to make important connections.
What are these habits that have so much power?
How can we change them?
Recognize These Bad Habits So You Can Fix Them
There are three habits that are holding you back.
It all starts with recognition.
There are simple ways to fix these bad habits so that you can make progress.
Do you feel that your level is actually higher than the amount of great connections that you create through English?
Ask Yourself If These Apply to You–Is This You?
- You have studied English for years
- Your grammar is fine or at least it is good enough
- Your listening is good and you pay close attention
- Your speaking is even fluid BUT……..You just don’t CONNECT!
People aren’t drawn to you and you don’t pull them in the way you should to make them want to keep talking with you.
What exactly is happening?
This Is A Learning Experience
Connections may be hard to make at first, but they don’t always have to be.
Consider what may be going wrong so that you can work to fix things.
It might be one or all of these 3 things- so ask yourself if you are doing any or all of these things.
What Are the Three Bad Habits?
1- Angle of the face and body: You have your chin down, you’re looking down, you’re not making eye contact, your shoulders are down.
- What can you do? Get your chin up and put your shoulders back. Straighten your spine. Imagine that there is a string from the top of your head reaching to the sky. Stand confidently and look people in the eye. This may be a cultural thing to teach yourself, but your confidence makes a big difference in making connections.
2- Pitch and pace: You are speaking fast, you are mumbling, you are not spacing or chunking your words, you are speaking too quietly.
- What can you do? Slow down, chunk your words and phrases, create pauses, breathe, actually notice if people are grabbing onto what you’re saying. Are the things you’re saying resonating? If not and you can feel that, then change the way you’re speaking.
3- Engagement: You’re not asking questions, not in an exchange. It’s more like you’re in a monologue with yourself. The quality of questions, frequency of questions, things like interjections, supporting the speaker- showing that there is a human there.
- If you’re not asking questions or giving the listener chances to interact, they lose interest. Make it a true conversation between two or more people and then you make the connection much easier.
Quick Fixes Make All The Difference In The World
What’s the good news?
Numbers 1 and 2 are simple and quick fixes. You can work through these on the spot and ensure that you don’t fall into these traps again.
Number 3 takes a little more skill building but you can start to incline in that direction. You gather ideas to get the input that you need. Then you put all of this information into action.
You make the necessary changes and you can actually see them happening.
You get the listener to engage in conversation and be interested in what you have to say when you’re doing this right.
Takeaway
If you are doing any of these 3 things then they are holding you back from articulating-which creates connection.
It’s okay if this is you because it happens to a lot of us.
Your first step is to notice that you are making these mistakes.
Focus on one thing at a time and notice when they are coming together and working in your conversations and your connections too.
You may not be that far off from connection. Just a few small hacks or tweaks and you’ll get the connections you want.
Stick with it!
Keep the questions coming–if you have a question please leave it in the comments below.
