Today I pass on some wisdom I recently found. I believe this could be so helpful in everyday leading.
“Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your ‘employee’ cursing you – and you know in your heart that many times you yourself have said bad things about others.” – Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verse 21.
The concrete thinkers and literalists have a strong propensity to take every word to heart, document it and use it in a future time period, whether in context or out of context. I am more of an abstract thinker. My problem is that I learn by talking out loud. Sometimes what I say out loud is my first draft, which needs to be scrubbed and then spoken again. I have found that I have said things out loud to people whom I thought understood that I was thinking out loud, only to be pinned down by words that were taken out of context.
My lesson is to tighten up my words so that I don’t drive the concrete thinkers crazy. To the concrete thinkers with literal recorders I suggest taking the verse of wisdom to heart – learn to gauge the full context of people’s words in the context of the situation so that you don’t drive your self mad nor the people speaking.
