Speaking Spanglanese...

This CSA is based off of my own personal catastrophe…

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of listening to my 2 year old son hold some very “serious” conversations with my 11 year old niece. While Colt seemed to know exactly what he was saying, Carli’s response was always, “Sir! I do not understand the language you are speaking!” After the first few responses from Carli, I informed her that the reason she didn’t understand Colt was because he was speaking Spanglanese… apparently this is his own language that makes all the sense in the world to him, but no sense to anyone else (except for me since I’m usually pretty good at figuring out what he is saying).

I’ve been told that I have been blessed with the ability to articulate my thoughts well. In most cases, this seems to be true. However, over the weekend I seem to have run into a couple of situations where although what I was saying made sense in my head, it DID NOT make sense to the other party involved. I’m taking full responsibility for this as I’m the one that’s having trouble communicating my thoughts. I should mention at this point that the entire conversations were had via text message… something I so don’t believe should be used to have serious conversations.  This being said, I’m afraid I may have altered a very good friendship that I’m not sure how to repair.

The lesson from all of this? There are two parts: 1) Never, ever, ever use text messages as a means for a serious conversation! Never! 2) Before having a conversation with someone, try thinking it through in your head, and if needed, again on paper (since obviously what makes sense in your head may not make any sense to someone else). If you find that the other party isn’t grasping what you’re trying to say, stop the conversation, re-evaluate what you’re saying, and start over with a different approach (if you’re allowed the chance).

The most important part of this CSA is that we should all realize that at some point in our lives, we are speaking Spanglanese. Once you realize this, it will be easier to handle stressful situations where you feel someone just isn’t listening to you. It may not be the other person, it may be that to them, what you’re saying is coming out in a language they just don’t understand.

The end. Hope this made sense and isn’t Spanglanese to those of you reading it.  J

First Impressions

Remember when, a long time ago, someone told you that first impressions are everything? Guess what, they are. In this day and age, people are quick to base their opinions on just about anything on their initial experience (i.e. first impression).

Let me state here that there are so many paths to take on this subject, however, I’m going to limit my comments to your own first impression. The one you portray to others.

If you don’t want to be classified as a particular sort of person, or stereotyped, then you should take care of how you portray yourself to others. Seriously, you’re grown, right? Stop getting upset when people treat you a certain way. Stop and look at yourself to figure out if the way people are treating you is directly affected by the way you portray yourself. (I’m going to list examples here. If you find yourself becoming offended, either stop reading or start taking a long hard look at yourself.) If you don’t take pride in the way you look, for example, people may take a first look at you and think that you’re a slob. (I’m not saying we don’t have days where we just are a mess… if you catch me in Wal-Mart on a Saturday, your reaction would probably be WTH!!) When people think of a slob, they think lazy. When people think of lazy, they think you’re not willing to put effort into anything. When people think this, there is a good chance that you won’t be on the top of their list when they are looking for someone to take charge and be a leader. Next in line… if you’re consistently seen with appears to be a scowl on your face, regardless of the reason, people will tend to think you’re a b…(I’m talking about myself here, lol). If people think this of you, they aren’t likely to approach you for anything. End of story. If you are someone that is consistently bragging about what you have and putting other people down for not achieving what you have, people will believe you’re arrogant. When people think arrogant, they think selfish. When people think selfish, they think you’re not willing to do anything that will directly benefit you therefore they will not come to you for anything. (This is a great way to turn off someone you’re trying to impress…) Finally, and here is where some of you will definitely get offended, if you don’t want people to associate you with trash or thug… STOP for the love of humanity, dressing and behaving in ways that feed into the stereotypes associated with such behavior.

I guess what I’m trying to get at here is that if you don’t want to be a stereotype, then stop using the stereotypes as an excuse to behave the way you do. Take pride in who you are and what you have to offer society. Learn to be a productive citizen of society. You start this process by really taking a long look at who you are, who you want to be and how you’re presenting yourself to others.
As always, if you’re needing some help with this, I’m always happy to dish out free advice…

"I'm just too busy!"

Please, to all of the people out there using the excuse that they are just too busy, stop with the tired out excuse. You really aren't as busy as you think you are. I'm currently a full time mom to an awesome little boy (a single full time mom), I work full time, I go to school full time, I'm also currently working on creating a website for our company, planning a community day event to benefit a local health clinic (this includes going around the community and physically talking to people to raise money and/or support) and working with an outside company to get a new database created/installed for work. Yet, I still find time to do the things that I find worthwhile. So if you're constantly using the I'm busy excuse as to why you can't do something, give me a call and I'll be more than willing to offer some free time management advice! I find that people ALWAYS make time for what they want  to make time for... something to think about?