Dr. Alison Wood Brooks

L is for levity.

And K is for kindness.

T is for topics.

So topics are the things we talk about, right?

If I asked you after this recording to look back and say, what do we talk about?

Your brain would be really good at organizing and categorizing.

Oh, well, first we talked about your course and then we talked about topics and then this.

So our brains are really good at chunking things into segments, into topics, which is so helpful in practice because it means that we can use that ability to steer topics while we're talking to each other.

You just have to know that it's happening.

And so I think often when you say like what topic you're going to talk about, people think about the opening topic.

Anyone who's going out on a date is already thinking about what they're going to wear, how they're going to do their hair, what makeup they're going to put on, what restaurant they're going to meet at, what activity they're going to do.

We do all of this prep work ahead of time.

Only 10% of people think about what they're going to talk about once they get there.

You're spending so much time showering and getting dressed and making the reservation at the restaurant.

At the same time, you should be thinking about what are some things that'll be fun for us to talk about once we're together.

So topic prep.

That's step number one.

Think ahead.

You just have to start doing it.

What do you mean?