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Know a Mr. Prove-It?

Monday Q of the Wk. Here’s how it works: Each Monday I ask a thought provoking question about life.  Pose the same question to your blog readers on your own blog along with your answer to the question.  Then come back here and post a comment with a link to your blog post so we can all read everyone’s answers!  It’s been a lot of fun getting to know my readers and their readers and so on and so on… This week’s question: Have you ever run into a Bad Conversationalist? JoJo’s Answer:
I wrote an article several years ago called Six Ways to be a Bad Conversationalist.  In it I outline six different kinds of people who make conversation with them like swimming upstream: Mr. Prove-It, I.M. Oblivious, Me MyselfandI, The Reporter, Men of Few Words and The Storyteller.  Understanding these six ways people are a difficult communicator can help you be a better conversationalist.
Have you ever had a conversation with one of these folks?  How difficult was it to share your thoughts?  I have and when I was a young girl, I WAS one of these.  When I finally got over my shyness and I was comfortable enough to talk to someone, I was The Storyteller!  When I learned more about effective communication, I began to understand how much other people needed to share in the conversation and how much fun it was to hear the stories THEY told!
Have you ever run into a Bad Conversationalist? Please don't name names, but post your answers on your blog and come back here and put your link in so we can read it!  If you don’t have a blog, just post your answers here. Learning Communication skills can also be fun with Art of Eloquence.com!

4 comments

  • Linda

    Well I am the reporter and the story teller and I get so excited that I sometimes inturrupt people when they are talking because I am afraid I will forget what I was going to say…. and yes, I am very very good at the run on sentense! Also the incessant line of questions. ( I was an awesome reporter when I was a journalist)

    My frustraition is trying to commmunicate with “Oblivious” and
    “Men of Few Words” types. Its like they never share anything with you and always leave you feeling left out.

    I have easier times with those who are “Me MyselfandI” because I have learned to give and take extra time. I have a little easier time with Mr. Prove-It because by the second conversation I am prepared with all my evidence incase I need it.

    Having said that, all of the above is in the natural. When I finally yielded to God and realized that faith was about relationship to Him and not just doing and being a relegious person, I started viewing people differently. Now when I run into people who I cant seem to communicate with I just ask God to put his words in my mouth and help me to remember that he made them especially in his image and with those charactoristics for an assignment he has been preparing them for from birth. And I ask God to fill me with peace, and patience so that I will observe with his eyes, hear with his ears and love with his heart. It is sometimes a challenge not to take offense.

    Lastly, It is very hard living in a family of siblings where you are the only motor mouth. I have to die to myself on that issue all the time especially when I go home on holidays.

  • Carla

    Well, this one isn’t quite appropriate for my blog (I’m working on a new “everyday-type” blog), so I’ll post it here. Unfortunately, I live with a “Me, myself and I” person. It’s frustrating, to say the least. Everything is about her. Nobody has it any worse than she does. Nobody suffers like she does. Nobody sacrifices like she does, yada, yada, yada. All about her. I have talked until I’m blue in the face to try to make her see reason, but it’s just a waste of my breath. Conversations are pointless. Redirection is impossible. It’s simply all about her. It makes life difficult. We have basically learned to ignore it, but that is scary because what if she’s really saying something meaningful or important while she’s in one of her pity parties? So we ignore with one ear and try to listen, sorta kinda, with the other. Wish I could break her out of this, but I doubt it will happen in either of our lifetimes. BIG SIGH

    Now on a good note, like you, I am The Storyteller, too! I love history and I used to teach it as a chain of stories, not facts and figures. It’s the story of people, all tangled up together. Everything, to me, is a story. I think people got tired of it when I was little. I was always told to basically shut up by those around me. Now I’m thinking it’s not so bad. Here’s to us Storytellers, Lucy!

  • Dineen

    Funny this should be yesterday (I am answering this on the 12th). I have an excellent example of Me MyselfandI from yesterday, my husband’s birthday. He had Ms MyselfandI pop up onto his instant messenger yesterday morning while he was having his coffee to offer him birthday greetings. After a sentence or two of well wishes, she immediately changed the subject to herself and her last month of spiritual revelations about her personal growth and interpersonal insights. My husband had a few, “yes, I see” and “how nice for you” comments inserted in her paragraphs of self-description. In the meantime, she kept from his breakfast for nearly an hour before he could extricate himself politely.

  • Laurie Neumann

    I have run across a couple of these types of people. The men of few words, and the Me, myself and I ones. It’s not easy to communicate – it is not natural or easy. But we need to keep trying…

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