Some people are very good at using a razor blade with a smile. Their words are so smooth, so sweet and so soft spoken, it may take you a moment to realize that you have been cut! While you are standing there bleeding, they ask you, "What's the matter? Often the person maybe speaking the truth, but truth is not the issue here! How the truth is told is the issue. A sweet, gentle, smiling razor blade is still a razor blade!

Most people are open to hearing the truth when it is said in a way they can hear it. People cannot hear you when you make them wrong. People cannot hear you when you attack their weaknesses. People cannot hear what you are saying if by saying it you are making yourself better than they are. Do not make the mistake of believing that the people you speak to do not know what you really mean. They do!

If you want to ensure that people will hear you when you talk about difficult or uncomfortable situations, speak to them from your heart. Speak to t hem from a place of compassion and
concern. See them as the part of yourself that does not like to be wrong, does not like to be cr iticized, does not like to be cut t o shreds.