Say it, don't delay it.

As I get older there are more and more occurrences where communication gets to be recognized as either why things went really well, according to plan; or why they absolutely went awry and offended/upset/disappointed someone (often myself). This seems to really be evident in my everyday life in my shoes as a Real Estate Broker. Someone's assumptions is usually, more often than not, a disappointment or not exactly how it would have been handled by someone else.

I don't know if it's a "man" thing, a mark of youth, or simply laziness but when I simply assume everything will go according to plan it almost always never does. When clients or other agents fail to express intentions either for a closing date, when to schedule the moving trucks, when to have their money by, etc. It usually ends badly - I even have got to the point where I am expressing to my clients the need for them to fill me in on all their assumptions ahead of time. I look like the weird one upfront but I'm not the scapegoat and the end of the transaction :)

This desire for communication has even spilled over into family life, teaching the kids, being a supportive husband, etc. Focusing on good and superfluous and often reinforced (through repetition) communication seems to move life in the right direction. That must be in part why the Good Book states “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.” Proverbs 12:25 (ESV)