Laila: Just the facts ma'am

As Liz stated in her original post about this impeccable joint venture, there are 4 agreements in the book. The foundation of all being the first one, Be Impeccable with your Words, and the one we are currently trying to attempt. But I notcie the other 3 sneaking in here and there and wonder how my "mastering" the foundation will affect my reaction to those other 3 in the future. For example.....

Yesterday I was having a conversation with a friend and I was telling her about a mutual acquaintance and her situation. I didn't know the full details of the situation, so I said "Just speculating here, but maybe it is because of her father running off with that sad looking circus clown and leaving her mother alone with 6 kids".  Actually that's not what I said, it was a lot less colorful, BUT, just the word "speculate" made me reflect later on that maybe I could have had the conversation differently. It wasn't my place to say the clown was sad, he was just drawn that way.  Speculating is assuming in one way or another, and by using my words to speculate I am in a sense spreading gossip. It wasn't anything malicious, but ultimately it was putting thoughts into my friends head that weren't facts.

So I guess by sticking to what I know, the facts, when I speak, it will make it easier for me to uphold the impeccable word. But these thoughts are still going to pop into my mind, so how do I handle that? I could just pause before saying anything, double check my words before letting them come out. Of course there might be some awkward silence, which I could always fill with humming like the muzak they play when you are on hold. - that wouldn't be weird at all, unlike choosing the sad clown versus the pie throwing happy one.