You are Not as Clear as You Think

We communicate more now than any other time in history. Between social media, email, texts, the antiquated phone call, and the occasional artistic chalkboard wall, we spend a significant part of our day sending and receiving messages with people.Normally, repetition helps you become better at what you do. Kobe Bryant became a great basketball player by practicing every aspect of his game. Peyton Manning spent a massive amount of time preparing for each and every NFL game.In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell observed that those who are masters of their field spend 10,000 hours developing their skills. I don't have any official statistics, but I would venture to guess that many millennials-remember, the ones called "digital natives"-have spent close to 10,000 hours communicating with people.Theoretically, then, we should be considered expert communicators. Yet this is often not the case.Just take a quick look at your social media feeds. "Clarity" is probably not the word that comes to mind when you read what other people are posting. Why is this the case?We are not pursuing clarity in how we communicate.