I caught a cold recently and lost my voice on and off for a few days. My throat was sore, so I concluded that it was best to not speak. Or speak as little as possible. It just wasn’t worth it.
Losing my voice gave me such an interesting opportunity: I was forced to really think before speaking.
One morning, I was presented with some disappointing news. My first impulse was to say something not so nice about the person who had let me down. I wanted to vent, give a piece of my mind, and defend myself. But I didn’t do any of that. I just said nothing. It wasn’t worth it.
By saying nothing, I gave myself a bit of a break. In that break, I did a mental tally of how bad the situation really was and this is what I discovered:
It wasn’t the end-of-the-world kind of news; more of just a let-down kind of news.
It was just a single opportunity gone, in a really big world of opportunity.
Everything happens for a reason.
I don’t have to take everything so personally.
If I had mouthed-off, I would have gone down the emotional road of blame, worthlessness, and anger. And that would have accomplished exactly nothing, except drain my already dwindling energy. But instead, I got to go down the emotional road of faith, trust, and compassion and feel my energy renewed.
And I concluded that whether I had a voice or not, it just wasn’t worth mouthing-off anyway.
Where is your mouthing-off draining your precious energy? What would you learn if you caught your tongue?
Here’s to conquering Stress,
The Stress Experts
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