Hi Reader,

Hope your week is gearing up. I came across someone recently who made me pause.

Not because of what he said…but because of what he didn’t say.

His name is Baba Hari Dass. (not sure if you have heard about him. I'm assuming you have not.)

And for most of his life, he didn’t speak.

Not occasionally. Not at all!!!

When I first read that, I had the same reaction you probably have right now: “How can someone teach… without speaking?”

I assumed it was symbolic. Maybe exaggerated.

It wasn’t.

He communicated by writing on a small chalkboard!

When someone asked: “How do I find peace?”

He didn’t write an essay.

He wrote: “Do your practice.”

One sentence at a time. And yet… thousands of people learned from him.

He built communities, guided students, and yes, he changed lives.

Without a single spoken lecture. That’s when something uncomfortable hit me.

If communication is only about talking…then this shouldn’t have worked.

Correct? But it somehow worked!

Which means most of us are thinking about communication the wrong way.

Let's look at this in a different way.

Because he couldn’t speak (better way to put... did not want to), he couldn’t ramble, over-explain, figure things out while talking.

Every word had to be chosen. Carefully.

So instead of more communication…

He created clearer communication. And I guess this is the key learning.

Think about your last important conversation.

Did you:

• say more than necessary?
• repeat your point in three different ways?
• keep talking just to avoid silence?

You don’t need to take a vow of silence. (Your friends will panic. But.. your wife may be happy :). Or, you may be happy. That's another angle to it. We'll talk about it another day which angle is the better one.)

Just try this: Before you speak, ask yourself—

“What is the ONE sentence that matters here?”

Then say only that.

And stop.... Period... Full Stop.

That's it for today.

Please let me know if you implemented this. I'd love to hear from you.

As always, thanks for being awesome!

Rama