Say What You Mean

I was on such a roll this morning! Totally absorbed in my book project, getting places, making connections. It was sweet. I was humming.

But then I had to break to meet a client and all my momentum died. I thought I would come home and pick it up again, but it didn’t happen.

At my meeting with my client, things went differently than he expected, and he said, “I feel like we wasted an hour.”

That’s not what he meant, though. He meant that things didn’t go as he expected and he worried that he had wasted MY time. He didn’t think HE wasted time.

But that’s what he SAID.

So we spent some time talking about how words matter. You can’t say words, and then say: But that’s not what I MEANT. You have to say what you mean.

Which takes discernment and discretion. I think you learn discernment by watching. So we sat and did a guided meditation and then both of us were more aware.

I then reminded him of all the progress he’s made since we started working together. I reminded him of what he was.

And that’s part of my work: to remind people who they are.

And I’m pretty good at it.