Speak up

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you really wanted to say something, to stand up for what you believe in, to speak your mind, to communicate a really important message?

So…did you do it?

Or did you freeze…

“He who hesitates is lost”

This is a famous line that my dad has said to me on occasion throughout my life. And is it ever fitting for my message in this post. Its origins date back to an 18th Century Play by the name of “Cato”, written by English essayist and poet, Joseph Addison.

Its meaning is this: “Swift and resolute action leads to success; self-doubt is a prelude to disaster.”

Simply put: “If you react too slowly to situations, especially urgent ones, you’ll die, get hit, lose a good opportunity, lose the girl (or boy), fail to make the grade…”

If you have something to say, say it

If you think about it in your mind for a moment first (you know, the good old “think before you speak”) and it’s still something you’re confident you want to say, then you must say it. If you don’t, you’ll wind up feeling the way I feel right now.

Regretful. And silly.

It doesn’t happen to me very often. I’m usually the person who has no qualms about speaking up. I can say what others find way too awkward or don’t want to deal with. And I can usually do it with poise!

Today I failed. And I feel as though I lost myself a for a few minutes. Where were my guts? My outward personality? Where did I go?

Learn, remember and move on

If you find yourself in a situation like I did, take some time to reflect afterwards. Learn from your inability (or unwillingness, in my case, mostly because I feared how the other might react or what I might look like through their eyes) to speak up and remember how you feel in those moments afterwards. If you don’t really care, well then it wasn’t very important then, was it? On the other hand, if you do care deeply about what happened and you feel regretful, document those emotions.

Why?

So it doesn’t happen again.

I’ve already decided that if I am ever in a similar situation again, I will remind myself of this night. I will remember. And I will change my next move so that it includes what I want to say!

In the meantime…move on. (Easier said than done, though!)