You have the right to remain silent

What’s something you believe everyone should know.

Everyone should learn how and went to keep their mouth shut.

Words hold a lot of power – A LOT.

I’ve heard people say all my life, “talk is cheap.” Unfortunately, you can pay a heavy price for saying the wrong thing. I lost a job over an off-the-cuff remark once. Granted, it wasn’t a great job anyway. I would have most likely quit. Maybe that’s why I left my guard down.

Something you say can cause deep hurt. You may not even mean anything by it. Perhaps you even apologize profusely when you realized what you said was hurtful. It’s still something that will stick in that person’s memory banks.

Do we need to walk around on eggshells? Of course not! Hurt is a part of life. No matter how hard you try, you’ll hurt someone’s feeling at some point. But what is the harm in making an effort to minimize the damage? Is it kind, helpful or necessary? Maybe think twice before you open your yap and words fall out of it.

Let’s take a look at a quote that has been attributed to various historical figures like Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln:

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”

We all know people like this. They know everything. They have an opinion about everything. Worst of all, they think other people care about what is rattling around in their brain. I can’t say I’ve never fallen into this trap. I was a lot more like this when I was younger.

I’m older now. I’ve taught myself to pause before speaking. I do this especially when I’m about to give an opinion or dazzle someone with my brillian… er, BS). My life is better for it. There is less arguing. Less strife and misgivings. Less feeling of pain and embarrassment when I go too far. Silence really is golden.

I’ll leave you with a quote from one of my favorite philosophers:

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak. ~ Baruch Spinoza