r/socialskills
Sometimes I get stuck in my own head. I’ll think about what I want to say, and I know exactly what I mean but when I actually try to put it into words, it comes out jumbled or awkward.
a Reddit user
Find the words for the hard conversation.
Practise it here first, where you can mess it up. Then go have it for real.
Do any of these sound familiar?
Sometimes the thoughts make perfect sense in my head, then I open my mouth and everything comes out in the wrong order.
an X user
The more you try to explain it, the more tangled it gets.
You over-explain for three minutes, then remember the one detail that mattered.
r/socialskills
Sometimes I get stuck in my own head. I’ll think about what I want to say, and I know exactly what I mean but when I actually try to put it into words, it comes out jumbled or awkward.
a Reddit user
The more you try to explain it, the more tangled it gets.
Sometimes the thoughts make perfect sense in my head, then I open my mouth and everything comes out in the wrong order.
an X user
You over-explain for three minutes, then remember the one detail that mattered.
You’re not alone.
Lots of clever people trip over this same thing.
Say it out loud.
Get a question.
Tell a story or just talk. Add a topic, or leave it open.
See what landed.
Your pauses and fillers, marked in your exact words.
Try it again.
Retake the same question, plain or with timed cues. See what moved.
People are finding their words
I used it the night before I asked for a raise. Saying it out loud a few times made the real thing feel a lot less scary.
Priya Raman
I don’t love the sound of my own voice. Trying one line three different ways until it sounded like me was weirdly fun.
Hannah Keller
