Math was never one of my best subjects. I took Calculus in college for one day. It was a complete foreign language to me. I quickly dropped the class and headed toward something more...well...basic.
But there are still things I remember from math in the early days when I could show you what grade I was in on one hand. Fractions. I wasn't bad at fractions. And as I write this post, I realize that fractions have a lesson to teach us when it comes to communicating our message.
Take this fraction for example:
4937208
-------------
19748832
Now that is a tough fraction to work with. If you were required to put that fraction into an equation and try and figure out the answer to a problem, it would be quite difficult. That's why my teachers would always tell us to reduce a fraction to it's "irreducible minimum."
If you take all of the steps necessary to reduce the fraction above, you end up with this fraction: 1/4
Now that's a fraction we can all get our minds around. And the same is true for the message you are trying to communicate. Make it too complex or difficult to work with and people won't know how to use it, let alone understand it.
When you reduce your message to its most simplest form, you give more people the opportunity to understand and act on what you're saying.
Can you say what you need to say in half the words?
Can you say it in smaller words?
Can you say it with a picture?
Can you say it in such a way that those who hear could repeat it elsewhere?
Reduce your message to its irreducible minimum and you'll find that your message is more irresistible.
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