“Choose as a guide one whom you will admire more when you see him act than when you hear him speak.”
Seneca
If you couldn’t speak for a week, how could you communicate your character and core values through actions alone? What if that week turned into a month? A lifetime?
If you want to challenge yourself, try this exercise every day for a week or a month. You will be amazed at what you learn.
- Grab a pen and paper. Write down one word that is core to everything you believe about life and how you want to show up that day. (You can, and should, do this many times, so don’t worry about finding the perfect word. Just go with the first one that comes to mind)
- Set a timer for five minutes and brainstorm three key behaviors you can actively demonstrate TODAY that bring your word to life through action, without any spoken communication.
- Pick ONE! Circle it on our page. Commit it to memory and then commit to accomplishing that action TODAY.
- Then do it. If it is something that you can demonstrate multiple times throughout the day, then do it over and over again.
- At the end of your day, score yourself on your ability to put into action what you hold as foundationally right without using a single word. Use a simple zero to 10 scale and write your score on the paper from the morning.
- Do the exercise over again the next day. It can be the identical word using the same behaviors or new ones. The key is to commit to demonstrating through action what you believe. No talking is allowed.
- Track your scores over time to measure your progress and gauge your effectiveness at delivering what you believe through actions.
The point is to let your actions do your talking for you and intentionally choose your behaviors based on your core principles and commit to bringing them to life through your efforts. If you can remove the barrier of speech, you will truly begin to communicate…
