"You talking to me?"

Ø  A personal conversation – with yourself

I’m not a regular “self-talker” but I do it at certain times, like checking myself when packing especially when in a hurry, or sometimes when I’m driving, like “slower down there buddy” or like “whoa, shit, that was the right turn you just missed” usually followed by “circle-back-around-dummy”.  Also, I find myself talking to myself but kinda at my PC, “where the hell did I put that”, “why did you do that, that was dumb”, “really”, “better clear that desktop buddy”, stuff like that. I don’t really do self-talk motivation though, like “you can do this”, “looks good”, “that was easy”.

I just so happened to spend the last few weeks in an office cubicle setting where there was a whole lotta self-talk going on, mixed with inter-team talk, partner/peer talk, “stand-up” meeting talk, policy talk, business talk, team meeting talk, personal talk, sport talk, weather talk, politic talk, entertainment talk, expert talk, help-me talk, music talk (mostly U2 talk cause they put on a concert that had been postponed), relationship talk, youtube talk, facebook talk, cell phone talk, even I M talk (IM or txting someone else and talking about it to someone else close by), and food talk.

The irony of all this is, I am here to help ensure clear and complete communication between Representatives of my Company and the Vendor partner participants I am sitting among, because we have been having “communication issues” – go figure.  So I have email up, receiving and replying. IM sessions open and active with minimum one person but in the thick of it anywhere between seven and twelve, the occasional text to my cell phone, and a few conference calls and a few miscellaneous phone calls, and team conference room meetings. Most of these various communications are also followed by a “confirming” email. In addition we have systems and tools in use that provide information/direction/communication on specific tasks. – Is it any wonder there are miscommunications?

Back to self-talk though. There’s a fine line between self-talk when you listen to yourself and there’s some form of acknowledgement, and when you’re yakking away and oblivious to it – haven’t got a clue what you’re saying or that you are even doing it. (And I’m not talking about the crazy-walking-around the streets-tripping-talking out loud-looney people (I truly believe, that they believe, there is a second participant in that verbal exchange)). Add to that, the phone headset, and you just can’t tell who the hell is talking to you, to someone on the phone, to themselves, the cubicle neighbor – it’s maddening. So madding, I now find myself saying loud “she’s not talking to me”, “is she talking to me”, “are you talking to me” and when they speak I can’t tell if it’s a reply to me or someone else. It’s a true communication cluster.

So my advice – keep your self-talk conversation a silent one inside your head, and if you do speak to yourself out loud, be sure to listen -- if you don't you're pushing on that "looney" door to the psyche ward.

FYI - I was really focused on this and didn’t speak a single word or utterance of this post to anyone, not even myself.