Actions speak louder than words

Closed minds act as if "words speak louder than actions". Closed minds ignore how they appear to be acting. They expect people to "do as I say, not do as I do" and never mind the mixed signals.

Open minds take the opposite approach. They presume that "actions speak louder than words". What's even better is the congruence of words and actions, a.k.a "walking the talk". When people can follow both our words and/or our actions and get the same message, we earn some serious credibility.

That raises the question of what am I doing right now and what that allows you to do? If you've been habituated into being told what to think at great expense to thinking for yourself, you may assume my actions are telling you you'd better not be thinking differently from me. However I have very different ideas about how I'm acting while I'm writing these words. Here's some possibilities:

• I'm expressing myself in this blogging venue that gives you equal freedom to express yourself.
• I'm reflecting on my recent experiences and sharing insights gleaned from them -- in hopes that you would do the same with your experiences.
• I'm creating insights into facets of experiences we may have in common that could give you fresh ways to see what you're facing.
• I'm exploring concepts that fascinate me as an example for you to explore concepts that fascinate you.
• I'm finding the flow to go with prior to writing anything so you also get the feeling of well-timed actions coming to you easily.
• I'm generating digital content for a searchable archive that may serve so anytime in the future that your own keyword search comes across this.
• I'm showing you how to follow my example of using words to get others to reflect more deeply on their own experiences.

Just because I presume to be acting in these ways, does not mean these actions would speak to you as they do to me. When actions speak louder than words, they cannot be taken literally. They provide gestures to interpret with one's own frames of reference as well as mine if you can empathize with me. Looking through my frames of reference calls for an open mind, just like embracing the possibility that actions speak louder than words.