Tone and context

Emails do not have a tone….

Well not without context.  I am always fascinated how people can say the tone of the email. I am sure the person writing the mail had a tone, but its not possible for the reader to read the tone as intended without adding their own tone to it…

And here we enter a mine field, because I have checked myself, sometimes I have to reread something a few times, because we see what we want to see most of the time. It’s easy to jump on the horse wagon and go off about something, but do we ever stop to realise, the tone that we apply, may not be what is really meant.

Politicians exploit this, because they “never say” or “never meant it that way”. But the plain old truth about the matter that unless you understand context (and few do) we simply have to read words for what they are. Books are a better medium to get a point across, because they can create context, but emails are too short for that. I am also sure you would not want essays arriving in your mail box.

Tone and context are needed for effective delivery of your intended message, yet few people ever give both.  It’s the reason I write with brackets and supposed expressions.

What’s worse is that even in speaking to people, they really only hear what they want to hear or simply skim what is being said……

I sometimes wish we could simply download what we are trying to say, but hey I guess there is a reason that we are forced to use words.  And we are subjected to the reasoning of others….

 

That first step….

Life is a strange thing sometimes, and our environments tend to dictate our decisions. We would never admit to it, but often we believe in the bottom line more than “living the dream”

I speak to a lot of people and have been through a few things in life. It always fascinates me as to why we do what we do. Why are you doing what you doing? For the income? For the passing of time? Are you really passionate about what you are doing?

What did you sacrifice in order to be doing what you doing? I think there in lies some meaty stuff. The more you sacrifice, the better the pay off. I mean in terms of fulfillment and so forth.

And there is the major dilemma…. We don’t like the sacrifice or the hard times, but we all want the better life and the passion for what we do.

It’s easier if you pay that earlier in life. The problem is that we never see the people who are living the dream, when they start off. We don’t see the pain and trauma people go through before they make it.

So how do we change our current place in life……..

That first step. The hard decision, change, you know the one we all shy away from.

The first step to a different day, life. Go ahead…. you do not need permission….

thehonestone

Is it worth it?

I often drive around and on the odd occasion I text and drive at the same time……

I know we have all done that, so stop gasping like that. But I was wondering today, although we get away with mostly…. Is it worth it?
I mean we really are playing with our lives as well as the lives of others around us.

It’s not that I do not understand the urgency of the moment. The client needs their answer, the boss needs his response, the friend needs advice………… The list goes on. But will that all matter if you are not there? What we are willing to risk our lives on…… Is it really worth it?

Most of us would not risk our lives on our own volition for a major cause, but we are quite willing to risk it on a whim. And all these things seem so important at the time, don’t they?

When you stand back and really analyse and ask yourself that question, is it really worth it?

I don’t mean to trivialize your situation, but what I am asking us to do is not to distort the importance of something that really in the grand scheme of things….. really can wait.

You alive and kicking is more important than that text or call.

thehonestone

P.S. the site will be down for a few days to maybe a week from friday. It needs some maintenance and possible a revamp. Well we shall just have to wait and see now won’t we.