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From: Russ Hicks
Date: 22 Oct 2007
Time: 13:23:17 -0500
Remote Name: 71.123.180.215
Hi Denise, Thanks for reading my paper and I'm glad you enjoyed it. ..... The secondary I remember most clearly was a whistle to beak a block, like "TWEET! Don't do that!" Yes, it was stupid - as most secondaries are - but by golly it worked! At least the first time. And it continued to work for some time too. In retrospect it was obviously a distractor but hey, if it worked, I loved it! I'm not sure when that was, but at least I was old enough to know how to whistle! <grin> My guess is probably 9 or 10. It didn't last long enough for it to become really engrained in my mind, maybe a couple of months. But the head jerks and eye blinks continued for a LONG time. ..... What helped me most? Golly, that's a much tougher question... I joined the NSA when I was about 45 years old and that's when I really started making progress. A few years later, because of the urging of an NSA mentor of mine, I joined Toastmasters and honestly that was where my major progress was made. I really learned the difference between fluency and communication and slowly it dawned on me (my heart as well as my head) that those secondaries were really major distractions to good communication. So when I began to concentrate on communication and really let my guard down on fluency, the secondaries began to fade away. It was a slow process, but in the end it was definitely worth it. ..... Does that answer your questions? I hope so. ..... I wish you the best Denise! ..... Russ