Wisdom Challenge: Day 29
A fool vents all his feelings,
But a wise man holds them back.
Proverbs 29:11
Oh boy…
This is one that I’ve been working on recently in my personal life.
I used to have a very bad habit of saying the first thing that popped into my mind. In my young adult years I thought this was how manly men were supposed to be, but I’ve learned since then that that behavior is just arrogant– foolish even, as the proverb puts it.
I still rock with the idea that men should not care what people think about them, yet on the flip-side, we still have things to accomplish in life an it’s best not to burn all the bridges.
We see all the time in the media how people can throw an entire career away by making one silly comment, or a joke around people who don’t share the same sense of humor as we do.
I learned that the jokes we found acceptable in the military isn’t received the same in the real world.
Even though I’m not a member of the Warren Buffet cult, he does have a quote that I like:
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 20 seconds to destroy it.
W. Buffet
Whenever we find ourselves in any conversation, it’s always good practice to know who’s in the audience. It seems like the older I get, the smaller the world becomes and you never know who’s listening around the corner.
It certainly takes a level of self-restraint to not say the first thing that comes to mind in various situations but with a little practice it gets easier.
When in doubt, it’s better to just say nothing at all.