When dealing with all things people, it’s best to watch how people behave and not what they say.

Charismatic people are great at swaying opinions or getting people motivated, but it doesn’t reflect on whether they have any follow through or even care about the things they discuss. 

There are very inarticulate people who are masters of very intricate or complex work. Who might not be able to talk through a problem or solution but somehow always deliver fantastic results. Sometimes people who communicate poorly are also horrible at their work as well.

There are people who say nothing, who primarily observe and take notes.  These people sometimes are struggling to wrap their heads around what is being worked through, and sometimes they step in at the last minute with a direct plan of action and notes on all that was discussed.

From what I think I know, it is impossible to sort out a doer from a talker through words alone. It’s not until the first deliverable is expected that they start to sort themselves out.

You can spot a liar by their many promises and their very few contributions. You can spot a lazy person by the half hearted output that comes only after many proddings. You can tell the overburdened by their abundance of good results but always past their deadline, and their failure to ever say no.

I find that when it comes to behaviors. People are amazingly consistent. The connection between say and do, that is the biggest tell in a person. They tend to behave consistently, even if they take many different approaches to what they say,  how they phrase things, or even if they’re lying.

I don’t know how other people think. Often people seem caught off guard by something someone said, even if that person is consistently problematic with what they claim they will do, and what the outcome turns out to be. To me, that is consistent but many people often seem surprised.

It’s difficult to change habits. Even when you spend months curating a new habit, and you finally make it routine, a single vacation will cause a lapse, and before you know it, you’re back to old habits and didn’t even notice the switch, you forget to remember the more disciplined choice. Output is habitual.

I try to keep promises tidy. I try to keep to my word. I am an overburdened person. I try to say yes to far more things than I can manage and I do my best to manage all of them. I want to stop this behavior, I want to say no to more things but it’s difficult. I want to do the things.

To be accurate with what I can deliver and when. Is a goal that I would like to accomplish. It would be nice to tell people I can’t do that at this time, and have them trust that, or that I would love to get it done by Thursday and it is indeed shipped by Thursday.

Heartbreakers will break your heart repeatedly. Overthinkers will not complete projects. Liars will make no attempts. Writers won’t write if they don’t write.

“Your food is getting cold” is being yelled at me from the dining room and I said I was coming to dinner. This is the honest to god ending of this post.