30 Days of Truth, Day Twelve: Something I'm Not Complimented On

Something that I'm never complimented on is my tact...and that's simply because I don't have any.  Tact is something I've never learned.  I come from a family of very loudmouthed Italians and it's just not our way. 

"Tact is the ability to tell a man he has an open mind when he has a hole in his head."

~ Unknown

Instead of tact I tend to live more by the rule of "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all" than trying to make something unpleasant sound pleasant (no matter how you spin it, fertilizer is still shit).  If I'm going to bother telling someone what I think, I'm going to say EXACTLY what I mean.  I do this both for them and for myself because I don't want there to be any confusion in what I said.  To paraphrase Dr. Seuss (gosh he has some good quotes) I say what I mean and I mean what I say because anyone who minds doesn't matter and anyone who matters doesn't mind.

I have a few friends who don't always appreciate my directness, because for whatever reason they are not used to me just cutting to the chase (I blame mid-western customs and gender stereotypes) but I never do it to be cruel.  Usually in the end they see I was coming from a place of caring and love.  I'll honestly admit I could be more tactful professionally, so I suppose that is something I'll have to work on.