Sometimes people stand back, as at a distance, and shoot an arrow at you, without much meaning, such as "There you go!" – It's what you might call a throwaway line – The question is, what do you say back?

A verbal tool, such as "That's it," helps you hold up your end of things without investing too much in the other person ... at least not at first.

"There you go!"
—That's it. Makes you cry.
(–Source: taxi1010.com stargate39)

There are many circumstances when you really can't afford to invest in another person, either emotionally, intellectually, or physically. For instance, in these examples, see how much "ad-libbing" you can avoid by using simple, almost automatic, verbal tools:

"The first rule of politics is to secure your base."
—That's it. Makes you cry.

"Marlon Brando died."
—That's it. Makes you cry.

"Which steak would you like?"
—That's it. Makes you cry.

"Would you like anything else?"
—That's it ... Nothing else.

"How do you like it cooked, rare?"
—That's it ... All set ... No more!  ... That's enough!

"Easy come, easy go."
—That's it. Makes you cry.

When you are around total strangers, the idea is to make small gestures of understanding ... to do for the sake of doing ... without feeling you always have to be a big investor.

However, just the moment you start investing in your own life, say, during your first week at college, or, God forbid, at a funeral, you bump into people who are not exactly logical ....

By confining yourself to what you know, you begin to discover what you need to find out. After the funeral, a waitress says, "Is everything okay?"

If you're on your Best Behavior, you'll notice "That's it" doesn't work so well here!

A verbal tool such as, "That's it," can be used ...

It is so logical.

An Okay! Monster (Similar to a Really? Monster) says "Okay!" after everything you say, for instance, while you're teaching them procedural steps on a computer. After a while, you begin to say, "That's it," "That's about it," or "Almost done!" after each "Okay!" to help keep you less insane.

The second things begin to go illogical, switch to "Try everything!"

Please use the Navigation Bar (below) to move back & forth («« page 001 »»), to visit review pages (every 5th), an overview (Contents) and refresher (indeX).

This concludes our discussion of "That's it!"