Kind, Useful, True

On Friday October 28, I woke up knowing that I was going to be observing how I communicate with others. But the trick is everything I had to say had to be kind, useful, and true. I would typically consider what I say to others to be positive but making everything that comes out of my mouth to be kind useful and true I believed was going to be actually a bit of a huge challenge and I didn’t know really know if I could do the task. Also I found it tricky to determine what would be considered useful. I honestly wasn’t sure how to approach my day but began with telling all my roommates “Good morning”.  Perfect, I didn’t fail with the first words that came out of my mouth. After the morning, I then proceeded to head to Starbucks and the locker room because we had a game. I was talking with one of my teammates about the upcoming game and of course began discussing the other team. I passed the criteria of saying things that were true and useful, for example I expressed my belief we were going to win and how we can take advantage of their exhaustion. But I believe I definitely failed at speaking kindly of the other team. I think I half failed half passed this assignment. Most of my thoughts and emotions were focused entirely on my team and the game this day. I wasn’t hard to say kind things to my teammates before the game. I was telling commenting on things that they were going to do well in the match, and I think because I was also focused on the assignment I was even more encouraging and electric in the locker room. But the other side to being much more vocal before the game is that most of the things I say are in a joking manner because I like to make people laugh and therefore I don’t know if I would consider these things to be useful or true. Getting up in peoples face and yelling at them, getting them hyped up could be useful in one way but also I’m not really sure if it was truly useful. I noticed that I could try and use a more calm approach while communicating in a kind, true, and useful way. When we got up to the gym right before the game I was very efficient in the way I was speaking to others. I focused more on what they needed to hear to prepare themselves for the game. I also told them how they were going to do great in the game today! I made it point to go up to everyone on the team and communicate these things to them. Throughout the game I went between being loud and energetic and composed and effective. What I have realized from this assignment is most of what I say on many occasions is really unnecessary. What I say is never unkind and demeaning but on the other hand it’s not useful. I would say about 85% of the things that I say are just in attempt to engage the interest of people around me.

What I have realized is the way I talk to people in some cases is somewhat disappointing. I like how I speak kindly with truthfulness but I also lack the useful characteristic in many cases. But also I have realized that’s just how I communicate with other people and then maybe in the grand scheme of things what I do say is useful because it brings people into conversations. Even if what I say can be random and at times kind of ridiculous it brings people together and spikes interest and conversation. So in reality they way I talk to people actually is useful even though the content may not be totally efficient.

Overall, I found this reflection to be challenging but also really beneficial because I was able to really take a look at the way I connect with those around me. I was also to determine the way I communicate is useful, kind, and true in most cases.