You talk to yourself more than you know. I am not simply referring to the act of speaking out loud when there is no one else to hear you speak. No, this is worse. I am describing the unconscious habit so many of us develop of constantly using our conversations with others as opportunities to justify hearing ourselves talk. Everyone does it to some degree, and it isn’t always bad. However, if you are not aware of it you are not going to be able to communicate effectively.
As a child, I found it amusing that my father, who upon learning a new fancy sounding word, would try to find every possible excuse to then use that word, even if it was mildly inappropriate. “Hey, you need to fastidiously clean your room!”, “I thought my point was perspicacious….”, and so on. When we learn something new or exciting, it seems to be natural to then want to share it with others. The problem is that what is new or exciting to us may not be new or even relevant to others.
Many people, after having read a new book or attending a seminar, especially if they learned something important, will then take every conversation for the next couple of weeks and frame it within the context of that lesson. Here is an obvious and absurd example:
Victim:
“I am really tired lately, I haven’t been sleeping well”
Well-Meaning Person Talking to Themselves:
“I just went through a course on organization. Maybe if you did a better job of prioritizing your day you would sleep better at night”
Victim:
“I am pretty sure my sleep problems are because my family died in a car accident”
Well-Meaning Person Talking to Themselves:
“Well, maybe… but you should really try this course. I can’t tell you how much it helped me sleep once I organized my schedule.”
We all need to “think out loud” from time to time and bouncing ideas off of others is healthy, the point is to be aware of when we are doing it. Talking to yourself in a business negotiation, developing a new business relationship, or just while explaining your business to someone can be disastrous. When we talk to people we have to be aware of what people need to hear more than what we need to say.
If you are still skeptical about this being a problem. Just keep in mind, I have been talking to myself through this whole article….
So many businesses have their own internal needs for tracking information and managing their own brand of chaos. Even though the world is saturated with different software, it seems there is never that “perfect” solution for what we need. What you don’t know, is that there is a piece of software you can use to make your own “perfect” solution.
Lot’s of people are using Twitter to grow their business, have you thought about using Twitter to RUN your business?
