Dear Friends,
It seems to me, there are three kinds of people, those who talk without thinking, those who think without talking, and those who think before talking. Those who think after talking fall into the category of those who talk without thinking. I suggest here that humanity would benefit if the silent spoke up a bit more, the motor mouths took their foot off the pedal… and everyone caches their words, then edit them for content, before they speak. Should that happen, more and possibly better ideas would enter the zeitgeist, people would get along better and thus our quality of life would improve. All simply by people thinking before they speak and saying what they’re thinking. Along with accepting people’s opinions as valid and not a source of criticism.
Some people’s brains are shunted directly to their mouths. These are people with the gift of gab. They dominate every conversation. We often love them because they have so little self awareness. Saying things aloud we hate to think in quiet. People with an entertainer personality are like this. Talkers seldom reach the highest levels of management. Though they make great salespeople. Their lack of a filter, glib nature and void of self awareness, allows them to shrug off rejection and shame. They may not be the best people to confide in though. Because, even if they don’t mean to, they tend to blurt out secrets inadvertently. Mixed in a torrent of chatter. I suspect these types of folks tend extrovert. Because most of the people I know like this always have an entourage.
There are many people who simply don’t speak unless spoken to. They may or may not be listening to the room. Perhaps it’s because they’re shy, don’t have anything to say or don’t want to appear haughty. Often such people are lost in their own minds. They make good listeners and keep secrets well though. They maybe overly self conscious. Which confines all ideas to their own heads. While these people are easy going they don’t contribute those ideas. Ideas that are often valid and valuable but never get shared. Which means humanity is deprived of their intellect, wisdom and life experience. A loss to us all. So it would not only benefit the shy, to become a little bit more gregarious, it also benefit’s mankind as well. Because we could then get the advantage of their input.
Some people use a cache to edit their words. Applying self awareness to their speech and actions. These people serve humanity by adding their insights but don’t burden it with chatter. They allow others a chance to speak and seldom talk over someone else. This kind of conversation mode allows for learning. Because you only learn when you listen. Speaking is trying to teach. About whatever topic the conversation goes. So the wise attempt to teach only that which they are knowledgeable about . Which is why the glib speak of their favorite, and most intimately known subject… themselves. Moreover, those that cache tend to stop speaking, when their words aren’t given the value the speaker believes they should. Which is one way radio mouths silence them.
I wonder if the three types I’ve described, share similarities with the three topics according to Eleanor Roosevelt, “Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and small minds discuss people.” Let’s face it, most conversations are about people. It could be, the closed mouthed think only of ideas, and are at a loss when confronted with gossip. Even as the glib can talk of anything… but excel in talking about themselves. Meanwhile those that cache their thoughts may choose what topics to comment on. Nevertheless, the tight lipped would be well advised to try to add in conversations, just as the chatter boxes might think about allowing others to speak, and valuing the input of other people. These simple actions we are able to do ourselves would improve the lot of mankind.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
