Not all pauses in conversation needs filled with words. Talking for the sake of talking is just an empty gesture, vaporous at best. The best that these kind of words do is make you look foolish, and the worst they do is get you in trouble by committing you to a course of action that you cannot easily extract yourself from.
It is in this place that we often want to lie and redirect responsibility to others so that we look good, at least I know I have done it, sometimes when I know better and my mind is screaming STOP SPEAKING NOW!
I know I do not want to seem a failure, and frankly, a part of me wants to blame anyone and everyone else. Because, like most of you, I do not enjoy being wrong and I enjoy correction even less. So rather than fill the air I strike a pose of attentive listening and then I listen, then I think, listen some more, pause, think again, and when appropriate (sometimes days later) I speak. This has had many great effects in my life.
Here are two:
- I do not get the correction I used to.
- People actually value what I say.
This second effect is perhaps the most humbling because; I am just a guy, nothing really special or stellar, just a guy.
The rest of this article will continue in the short book available on Amazon in kindle in the near future and print format. In it, I present more detail, examples, and testimonies of men who controlled their WORDS.
