Be more vocal

I had a great conversation with a friend the other day and realised I need to be more vocal with my ’takes'.

When I leave my thoughts and opinions in my mind, and don’t choose to articulate them, they are fuzzy. It feels as if I could articulate them, when when I actually do try verbalise them, I realise that I don’t really know what I think.

When the words come out, they’re logically inconsistent, messy, factually incorrect.

Worse yet, I’m afraid that others may disagree with me or ’think I’m stupid’. The self image module rears it’s head.

I’ve read a book many times, and all I can say about it when asked is that I’ve read it… I didn’t actually take away anything useful.

And that is because I didn’t either write about it, or talk about it.

This applies for so many domains. I feel the ‘sharpest people’ I’ve met have ’takes’. They are fairly vocal about what they believe in, and simultaneously open to criticism of those ideas and worldviews.

They also don’t hold them too tightly. They are willing to admit they are wrong, and revise their opinions. They hold themselves quite lightly.

It’s a high bar, but one to aspire to, and another reason to write regularly about anything and everything, what this blog (a public facing notebook/journal) aims to do.