WAIT, why am I talking?

One of the most valuable pieces of advice i ever received was in the form of an acronym:

WAIT

which stands for

Why

Am

I

Talking?

Its a good reminder to me that it’s best to listen twice as much as you talk, especially when no one asked for your opinion in the first place.

Right up there with WAIT is SLAGIATT:

Seemed

Like

A

Good

Idea

At

The

Time.

One acronym for sure that you don’t want to be thinking of, especially since it’s only relevant after you’ve done something stupid.

I’m an over-talker in person, but pretty brief in writing. I was thinking about WAIT this week, after I was teaching a lesson. When a student asked a question about accidentals (those flat and sharp symbols in front of printed notes) in music, i found myself talking in circles again. Do I have a persistent need to fill dead air with words? Maybe. Do I eventually get to where I’m going even though i wasted gallons of brain fuel getting there? Often. It doesn’t, however, serve the student all that well if they’re trying to follow the thread and have no context yet for what I’m saying. I’ve noticed this tendency showing up again in recent weeks, and maybe not coincidentally, I haven’t had time for fencing in that time period between work, the holiday, and performances. I’ve found fencing to be a good physical counterweight to the mostly sedentary and mentally intensive process of music making, and things have felt out of wack recently. This paragraph is probably longer than it needs to be.

It’s something I’m going to be mindful of this month, when I’m tempted to lay around instead of moving my body in some productive way. I’ll check back in here in a little while to see how I’m doing with that.