Join me and put on an introspective hat for today's reflection on talking vs. doing. What percentage of your time would you estimate you spend in each of the four modes described briefly below? Just as important, how closely would your estimates match what people close to you would say? I have no expectation anyone will claim mode #1 or mode #4 as their default. Some may even think they spend no time in either of those modes. I make no such claim; haven't mastered that walk on water thing just yet.
Mode #1: Talking without doing: Call this the procrastination or flapping gums mode. I spend about 25% of my time operating - or more accurately, languishing - here.
Mode #2: Talking then doing: This is my default mode. For better or worse, I'm someone who announces my intentions because I've learned doing so greatly enhances my chances of following through. Could be the extravert in me, could be the showoff, could simply be my temperament; take your pick. I spend about 60% of my time operating in this mode.
Mode #3: Doing without talking. Though I strongly endorse the notion that actions speak louder than words, this mode is more aspirational than operational for me. And though some people I admire - the strong/silent, still waters run deep, etc. types - actually do a great deal for others or for the world without much talking or fanfare, my experience has also shown me plenty of strong/silent, still waters types whose default is mode #4. As for me, I'd estimate I spend about 10% of my time in mode #3, my aspirations aside.
Mode #4: No talking or doing: Call this the uncommitted or cynical mode. I spend about 5% of my time in this mode. An unofficial motto for this mode could be "Talk is cheap." That naysaying is a kind of code not real subtly aimed at dismissing people like me who default to mode #2, even when my (too many) words do (eventually) turn into action. I'm most likely to operate in mode #4 when I'm afraid of failing or disappointing others, or when I succumb to reflexive skepticism.
Are you going to leave me all alone and emotionally exposed out here in the blogosphere? Come on, have a heart.
Hello, again, Pat. Lets see where I would place myself in the categories you've provided:
ReplyDeleteMode #1: While I can procrastinate with the best of them, I find that less and less time is spent in this mode.
Mode #2: Bingo. This is also my #1 or, as you put it, your default mode.
Mode #3: I try to do this more and more. Rather than talking the talk, I will plan tings out - even if it's in my own mind, and then do the doing. Usually it's what I have to/need to do in a given day or week. And since I'm up and moving hours before my lovely wife, and it;'s just the two of us at home, I just take care of what I need to take care of and go from there.
Mode #4: I would, possibly, call this my lazy mode. No talking and no doing? It does happen but, thankfully for me, not very often.
I know I left out the percentages, but I can see them changing often enough that they would only be temporarily correct.
Be well,
Bob
Hey Bob; Thanks for putting some thought into this, percentages or not. Although percentages do vary - for me as well as you - I was aiming here at having readers consider how they operate most of the time. In my case, although the percentages may shift situationally (or as you say "temporarily"), my 60-25-10-5 breakdown is close enough to predictively accurate that I'm comfortable owning those numbers at present.
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