It took Leonard Cohen 80 draft verses before he settled on the final version of Hallelujah, the most recorded song of all time.
How many revisions do you go through before you decide that your message just isn’t a greatest hit?
Because if your message doesn’t click yet, maybe you’re still in verse 17 of your “Hallelujah”?
Cohen says that “one is distracted by this notion that there is such a thing as inspiration, that it comes fast and easy.”
It does not, mostly.
Neither in music. Nor in communication.
It’s one of the big myths about communication that great communicators would be natural born talents.
That they somehow pull those words out of nowhere and just nail it the first time.
Like every. single. time.
And if you don’t, then you’re obviously not one of them. Right?
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
My experience is that great communicators just stick with it longer.
Almost every clear message starts as a messy one.
They become clear through the revisions.
When a message doesn’t click, try a different version.
And then another.
And another.
Until it finally does click.
What version do you usually give up on?
Keep lighting the path!
