Communication is a vital part of life, as it’s necessary for any of our daily interactions. So how do you easily expand your ability to communicate?

Communication is based out of things that two people have in common. If you actually met someone who had literally nothing in common with you, you would be completely unable to communicate. As it is, that is not possible, since you will at least share the traits common to all humans.

So, you know that you have something in common with anyone, and that that makes communication at least possible. The next step is to start speaking with more people. You can start conversations with people you’ve never seen before, or if you’re not ready for that yet, get to know people better whom you have already met. As you have more conversations with more and different people, your ability to identify what you have in common with them, or someone new, will improve.

People who seem to be the least like you before you get to know them are the best people to talk to when trying to improve your ability to find what you have in common. It makes you work harder, and just like with muscles, as you work harder you get more benefit. You come to realize that if you have that much in common with people who are that much different from you, then you can find such things in anyone.

Each thing in common that you discover is another starting point from which to convey your message. When you have more starting points, you have more ways to get there, and therefor an ability to choose which one is most effective.

As you have more conversations with more people, the ability to know which starting point is most effective also improves. You will also find that you are better able to tell whether the message received was the same as the one you sent.

That’s three ways by which your ability to communicate can expand… you can find more points in common to start from, you can better choose which one of those is the right one to start for this particular message, and you can better read if the message sent was received intact. All of these benefits come from having more conversations with more people. You also get the added benefit of expanding your social network, making it more likely you can contact someone able to help you with anything for which you need help.

So go find someone new with whom you can have a conversation. It can be online, on the phone, or in person, although in person is the most effective way to learn, since you get better and more immediate feedback. Even leaving comments on a web site can be effective, if they get a response.