I’m not here to give you a list of topics that bore people, nor am I here to tell you a phrase that you should avoid saying at any cost. I’m just here to share with you the mistake that I’ve seen other people make, and that I have made, on our way to becoming improving our conversation skills.
Watch Out for Conversation Burnout
One of the big mistakes in learning to master the art of conversation is to watch out for conversation burnout. Conversation burnout is similar to study burnout.
You know how you will study for an exam until your head spins and before you know it you develop headaches? Even though this may be the way that most of us study, we all know it’s not a healthy way of studying. We don’t eat right. We sleep less. We feel anxious and stressed. All because we’re trying to cram in as much knowledge in as short of a time as possible.
For some, mastering the art of conversation is no different. Sometimes we feel the need to be so good at a skill that we are willing to do anything to achieve it. This may be due to the pain we have suffered in the past. Maybe because we were not good at making friends. Or in my case because I was mostly dateless when I was younger. Or it may be the belief that nothing in life comes easy and that we must put in the pain to feel the gain.
These thoughts that we hold consciously or subconsciously soon turn into the actions of our everday lives. These actions then become our habits, and when the habits are overdone they become an addiction that soon lead to burnout.
While I’ve encouraged clients to set up plans and goals for their conversation, I have always advocated that people should learn at a pace that makes them uncomfortable but not to push themselves to a point where their health gets lost. Or where they forget about the other important aspects of their life like their family, or even the friends they have made.
I have met people in the past who would spend 8 hours a day talking to strangers on weekends. Or sometimes I see people going out 7 days a week for 6 months in a row. They would focus on trying to keep an interaction going that their was barely any energy for them to walk. Though some of them ended up with great results and did improve the quality of their interactions, many agree that it wasn’t necessary.
The quality of an interaction, and what was learned from the interaciton was more important than the number of interactions had or how much time was spent at an event.
Burnout can happen at parties and networking events. We push ourselves so hard to make personal connections that we can feel exhausted internally. Only to lose our voice the next day and find out we become sick a few days later.
Push yourself, but don’t exhaust yourself when you’re trying to master the art of conversation.
Watch Your Health First
Everybody needs to relax. If you find that you’re going out a lot, and having a lot of conversations and you start to feel conversation burnout then you need to relax. Take some time for yourself. Having time for yourself to relax, and take it easy will help your conversations get stronger.
The brain needs time to relax in order for it to process new information. By constantly bombarding it, it can get consciously tired.
Enjoy life, and go out there and do things that don’t have to be social. Go for a walk by yourself. Go on a trip to another city with a friend. Get away from practicing your conversations once in a while.
This way you’ll be able to have better and better conversations, because you’ll be able to talk about life.
Do you believe that you can practice conversation skills too much? Or do you prefer putting in more than 100% effort when mastering any skill?
Related posts:
- Overcoming Approach Anxiety | The 3 Minute Rule
- Art of Appreciation – How to Compliment People
- Why People Fail to Improve their Social Skills
- The Art of Conversation-Introducing People with Style
- Secrets to Talking to People when Religion is Brought Up
Do you need help with Conversations, Making Friends or Your Dating Life?
