This week's Pep Talk Blog: "Show vs. Tell"

It was just minutes before a talented crew was expected at the door to begin the process of cleaning the house. I remembered to check my teenage daughter’s room. Her version of “things off the floor” and my interpretation of that ground rule, are sometimes not in the same universe. So, I’m throwing all her junk, that’s on the floor, on her bed so the Healthy Clean team can vacuum away.

As I’m tossing clothes, books and papers onto her bed, a drawing about her club volleyball team, catches me eye. She has drawn, or traced perhaps, the team logo and beneath it, this statement: “Show vs. Tell.”

My heart skips a beat or two. Ain’t that the truth. Our actions do speak louder than our words. To show someone – good or bad – behaviors, attitudes and beliefs will have a far more profound impact on their reaction to you than your words: Show versus tell.

Now, in the case of the Juggernaut volleyball team, the mention of “Show vs. Tell” has to do with how this group of young women, their coaches and parents conduct themselves on, and off, the volleyball court. Excellence in sportsmanship, goal achievement and desire to improve, is the standard and expected result. As I like to say, they have a history of running to daylight and playing like a champion in the game of volleyball and developing successful young women.

Whenever I have the privilege of standing before a crowd and encouraging the gathered with a Pep Talk, we talk each and every time about the importance being a good sport in life. I suggest we might be able to do that by keeping a healthy attitude toward change, working well with others and having the courage – despite the “junk” life throws our way – to keep putting fear and self doubt aside and allow wonderment to win.

I know it’s not easy. There will be parts of you screaming “no” to the mere fantasy in your brain that you could do “that?” But one thing I want to encourage you to NEVER grow weary of doing: have your actions speak far louder than you words.

Show vs. Tell. It’s the truth whether talking of a volleyball team, family, company, neighborhood or – whatever. That’s why it’s critically important that what you are demonstrating honors you, nurtures those dependent upon you and adds value to the communities you serve; if your “show” is that, good for you and us.

I never knew throwing my daughter’s junk on her bed would reap such a harvest. It provided a great reminder of life: What we do, says far more, than what we say.