Count to ten before you speak.
The phrase blah-blah is now part of our everyday vocabulary after Greta Thunberg used it to admonish world leaders for talking about sustainability without doing anything. As an introvert who rarely speaks until spoken to, seeing the sheer volume of blah blah around reassures me that, it’s better to be quiet than quite boring.
Social media is the most fertile breeding ground for blah blah. Everyone is always talking, texting, and posting. There’s an old Indian saying that the empty pot makes the most noise. People stretch their threadbare knowledge; ripped knowledge is now as fashionable as ripped jeans. Communication is no longer a tap you open to drink when parched but a broken sewage pipe that floods everything. Anger management classes are passé; instead, we need speaking management classes. But a crucial anger management lesson also applies to speaking management. Count to ten before you speak. Ask yourself if you are adding to the sweet pool of knowledge or the sewer of blah blah.
It’s not easy because the blah blah culture is quick to write off the quiet ones as reticent, shy, or even worse, stupid. But remember Gandhi’s words. Gandhi said, use your knowledge like a pocket watch; speak only when asked.
So go still, stiller. Live with presence. Respond rather than initiate.
