CHAPTER 2 Your Actions Are Speaking So Loudly I Can Hardly Hear What You're Saying This chapter's title comes from an adage I read on a sign that a friend of mine used to keep on his desk. I always thought it was spot on. Our actions speak volumes, yet we spend scant time actually observ- ing them. We're experts at reading other people's actions, and other people certainly know how to read ours. But how well can we read our own actions?