Tuesday, January 5, 2010

To think or not to think......

I found this great quote (author unknown)

"Imagine what your life would be.....if you started to think for yourself!"


How many people do you know that could use this advice?  No need to name names!

Whether you're intimidated by someone, don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, afraid of failure or just plain feel you have to follow the "rules" to keep the peace you may feel like you never get the opportunity to think for yourself.

We continuously pack our own thoughts away neatly because there is someone with a stronger opinion than ours making all the decisions.  And when the time comes where we actually have the opportunity to express a thought or opinion, we are totally amazed at how incredibly brilliant we are!

My goodness, why do we keep quiet for SO long?

Have you ever been to a gathering and there are some strong personalities in the group and you are having a discussion, one of the strong personalities states a "fact" (not a known fact, just their fact) or makes a suggestion and everyone quiets down because they disagree with what was said, no one says a word and you just know what they are thinking but they don't want to say it?

Just so you know, I would totally be one of those people keeping my thoughts to myself, and looking around the room wondering who was going to speak up over this issue. 

I used to do it as a kid all the time.  In class when the teacher asked for an answer I would slide down in my seat, stare at my knees or pretend to be concentrating really hard on the book in front of me (trying to make it look like I was thinking of an answer).  And somewhere inside of me I always felt disappointed when I wasn't called upon.  I never felt smart as a kid (that was my sisters domain), I was self conscious and shy and wouldn't have said shit if I had a mouth full of it!

However, in 2009 (that dreaded year) I realized that my practice of ignoring my thoughts (brilliant thoughts at that!) wasn't doing me or the people around me any good.  You know how the Chinese have different animals for different calendar years?  I would have to say that 2009 for me was the year of the MOUTH!

I started step by step opening my mouth just for the heck of it, to see what would come out if I actually allowed my thoughts to form into tangible words.  I found that I really do like what I have to say and that there are people who want to hear my thoughts.  Go figure!


I think our biggest fear about sharing our thoughts is that of judgement from others.  I think ultimately we are afraid that the sky will fall down upon us if we actually speak our mind and so we avoid it like the plague.

You know how many times I have written a blog post, only to erase the whole thing or let it sit in my draft file for months?  Many.  The truth is I am somewhat afraid that what I have to say won't be well received, or may offend someone or may in fact be just plain boring. 

The reality being (and I am aware of this at my core) that if someone has a strong response to anything I write about here, there is a shift occurring within that person and I need to congratulate myself for putting something out there that challenges people's perception.

And so as restitution to myself for 37 years of keeping my mouth shut, I will erase no longer!  I will step into my higher genius and speak about what moves me, whether you like it or not!

3 comments:

  1. Great post...just be careful with the tongue, sometimes it can get you into more trouble than what it's worth.
    Coming from someone who knows ;)

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  2. well, I never! :) he he he

    Go Jenn!!

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  3. Very well put Jen. Strong blog post... I am going to pass this one along

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