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When I was younger, I was very shy and didn't have many friends, nor did I talk much. People always said I was really quiet. As I've gotten older and more confident I have apparently gone in the opposite direction. A few years ago, before I actively started pursuing self-knowledge, people sometimes said I talked too much. I've noticed that I happen to talk about myself or things in my life a lot as well. I'm in a weird place where I know what I'm doing, but I have difficulty not doing it. I know the key to having a good conversation with people is empathy and active listening, but I find myself just anticipating when the other person finishes so I can give my two cents on the matter, no matter how trivial. Is there any way to fix this? I've tried going "silent" a few times and only responding to people, but I always end up back to jabbering away at some point. I really don't want to be either silent, nor hog conversations or turn it to myself. It's weird because it only affects my personal life really. When I'm in a professional setting I don't seem to talk about myself too much unless asked. I thought perhaps a solution is to view my personal life as a business setting, but then I don't feel authentic. One of the first books on self-knowledge I read was "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie, and it has only helped me become self-aware of how much I do talk about myself. I've used a lot of the advice in the book, but it seems to only help professionally and not personally. As a result I still have few friends that I'd consider close. Does anyone have any past experience with this or advice on what I can do? I know I need to ask questions and be genuinely interested in others, but that impulsive itch to talk always creeps up and it's hard to stamp out when it does. Thank you for taking the time to read this.