NOT APPROACHABLE! It may as well be written on the person’s forehead. First, there’s the lack of acknowledgement when you approach. Then, when finally acknowledged, you’re “greeted” with a sour-looking face, slumped body language, and a mumbled, half-hearted greeting that is given only after you’re forced to prompt it because of the awkward silence while […]
Pretty soon after we’re born, our parents start encouraging us to talk. “Say mama,” or “Say dada,” they cajole, beg and bribe us to speak. We learn from early on that talking gives us a lot of control over situations and others. Therefore, many of us develop some really bad talking-related habits, such as: Stagehogging, […]
Back East where I’m from, it’s a fall tradition for many families to take an afternoon trip to a local farm to pick out Halloween pumpkins. However, the trip is about more than just buying a pumpkin- you can do that at the grocery store. There is apple cider, fresh cider donuts, and then the […]
There are a lot of things we know we SHOULD do- exercise more, be kinder to people, eat healthier, get a jump start on that project. However, the word SHOULD itself stops us from moving forward. It allows us to put off whatever we say after it. When you say: “I should get started on […]
It’s Sunday afternoon and my husband has just fallen off a ladder, out of a tree, and onto the ground. It all started when he went out to trim the trees along our driveway. They’ve gotten pretty tall and the task is more difficult as a result. I offered to help, but he said he […]
Many of us walk through life thinking other people push our buttons. That guy who cuts us off on the freeway makes us mad. The woman who lets her dog poop in our front yard annoys us. The child who says he did his homework, but we find out later that he didn’t, disappoints us. We spend […]
Whether it’s listening talking to someone and assuming that because they say, “uh huh,” that they understand or sending an email and deluding yourself into believing because you received a read notice, that the person actually read your message, none of us can afford to ASSUME that communication has taken place in any situation. We […]
We all know at least one. It’s that guy who only asks how you’re doing so he can jump in and tell you how he’s doing. It’s that gal who has to let you know all about the great things her son is doing, but never asks about even ONE of your kids. They’re the […]
Greetings from Ireland! It’s about 5:25 am here and I’m getting to start my last two full days of my UK/Ireland adventure. Many people asked me to write about the communication differences I’ve seen while here. I wrote a little about that in last week’s Monday Motivation and will likely write more, in-depth pieces in […]
When my brother and I were teenagers, we used to fight . . . a lot! I’ll admit that most of our fights were ones that I started and were probably unprovoked. In one particularly “lively” incident, I found myself trapped on our back porch, with my brother telling me that under no circumstances was […]
