All throughout elementary school, I always received one red remark on my report cards. My mom would look down and shake her head and say, "Amanda, you have to learn, your teachers keep putting that you 'talk too much.'" As I got older, talking too much became part of my identity. With my raspy voice and my ability to speak 200 words a minute and actually annunciate every word, I just started to realize it was really easy for me to overshare and over-express. In a world full of over-saturated platforms that are about sharing, I fit right in and get rewarded, and yet in the real world, I am now realizing less is more.
I was told tonight a great quote, "If I had more time, I would write less." Another quote I was constantly told growing up was, "loose lips sink ships." When you don't just get to the point (in my case I am everywhere but the point), you lose credibility, you lose the person's attention you are speaking with and you lose yourself in the conversation. Think about the people in your life that you trust the most. The person I want to be in a relationship with, the person I want to do business with, the person I want to be friends with doesn't just talk, they follow through. They under-promise and over-deliver. It is the people that talk less and act more, the people that are smart and deliberate with their words and follow through with their actions, that make a lasting impression.
A lot of people talk. They share what they want to do, what they believe in, the last Youtube video they watched, who they know, what hotel they stayed in, and how many drinks they had last night, and so what? Talk is cheap.
I believe that my love for so many people and my outward expression of this love makes me who I am, which I would not change for the world. I believe that my raspy voice and my ability to speak extremely fast is something that makes me special, and I never want to lose that side of me either, but I also believe in balance. I think there is a time and place in a casual setting with people you love and trust to over-discuss and to overshare, and there is a time to listen, to absorb and to be strategic with your responses. You never know what you are going to learn when you shut up, sit back and just listen to the person you are speaking to. And in less than 500 words, that's all I have to say about that.
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