‘Silence is golden’. I have been hearing this statement from when I was in my mother’s womb and I still hear a lot of people say and use it on TV, radio and even in one-on-one conversations. What always leaves me wondering is whether or not they really understand the weight that lies in that comment.

God in his infinite wisdom created for man, one mouth and two ears; which means that originally, we are probably supposed to be talking less and listening more. But some of us cannot keep it to ourselves even when we load airtime on our mobile phones (everybody must know). Some cannot keep quiet when as little as 10 dollars falls into their bank account. All your friends and even people you lost contact with years back, are fully aware what exactly your life looks like in spite of the fact that they are not close to you. You know your problem, you are a talking dreamer! The thing about talking dreamers is that they get to achieve very little and mediocre results. The essence of this write up therefore, is to educate you on how much it pays to keep quiet, especially whenever your aspirations are still under construction. I will open up all the intricacies you have never thought of or taken seriously, so that by the time you are done reading this, you will learn to zip it a bit.

First of all, talking too much will get you unnecessary enemies. lets take a look at the story of Joseph; And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words (Genesis 37:5). One can realize from this story that, joseph had dreams he could not keep quiet about (perhaps because he was 17 at the time and not very mature). By telling his dreams to his brothers they hated him for his dreams and most importantly, for his words.

This is exactly my point. This cost him some years in prison and several other torments before he eventually reached his destiny. A lot of people cannot stand the thought of you becoming big. I know you will be quick to say that in Josephs case, was meant to be eventually came to pass in the end. But couldn’t he still have become Prime Minister of Egypt without having to first endure all that pain? The point is that joseph was a talking dreamer and talking dreamers often pay a lot more for their destined achievements, than those who learn the art of silence. Perhaps, he was not meant initially, to go through the long process, before eventually becoming prime minister, but his tongue cost him that much.

This is not a biblical paper but I am only trying to point out common sense and critical thinking to you. Learn to keep quiet because unlike joseph, you might not have the kind of courage, endurance and most importantly the sort of divine intervention he possessed which eventually led to his long-term success. Minimize your enemies by keeping some details to yourself so that you can have a lot of hands on to help in your quest for success.

Furthermore, talking too much will compound your problems. In the previous paragraph I made it known that though you are not afraid of enemies, it is not a wise thing to spend precious time dealing with them, even if you overcome them in the end, as such precious time could have been invested into something more profitable. The thing is that, enemies are not the problem, but rather, the problem lies with the things they can do to distract you. You have to understand that if your dream is big and enviable (as it indeed, should be) then you already have enough troubles ahead of you to combat, over which you have no control. While you try to strategize on how to deal with these inevitable hurdles, do yourself some good by not adding your own self-made problems to your headache.

Your road to success is already dusty, do not add potholes to it please. I am not saying that all the people around you are envious of you, but I mean that since all lizards lie prostrate, you never can tell which one has belly ache. Hence, in order to minimize your struggles, just learn to keep quiet a little. The last thing you want for yourself is to suffer the heartbreak of having people you love, rise against you just because you have a better potential then they do. Have you ever stopped to imagine what psychological torture joseph may have gone through when he was sold out by his brothers? Think about it and please do yourself some good by keeping mute.

Next, running your mouth will make you lose your ‘Wow’ value. Have you ever made a grade so good back in elementary school that your teacher and your friends were like “wow! How did you do it”? Or have you ever witnessed a colleague at work reach targets before stipulated time, leaving your boss wondering how they did that? Yes. That’s what I call the ‘wow’ value of your achievements. Endeavor to work hard and intelligently in silence so that your achievements will make the noise for you. Trust me, there is nothing beneficial about telling people all that is in your head. And the funny group of people are those who publicize the expected end results of their actions even before they begin to work on it. If only you knew what harm you are doing to yourself…..
keep people in wonderland a little, so that when you finally show up, you will be adored and cherished by all. But if you tell people all the fantastic plans you are making towards your business and life in general, there will be nothing surprising about it as it would only be a manifestation of what they already knew. One would ask, is the wow value very important?

Yes, it is as important as the achievement in itself. What the ‘wow’ value does is that, the marvel and that I-am-proud-of-you look on the faces of your loved ones make you feel good about yourself and pushes up your self-esteem higher. On the other hand, cold reception of your achievements will leave you wondering whether your achievement is even worth it. And that is a No Good experience.

In addition, why don’t you make talking time, working time instead? Many a time we waste limited time talking and gossiping for long periods of time, while we could actually invest that amount of time into something more profitable. The problem is that you find time to sit with friends and share all your life plans with them because you are not giving enough attention to the goals you have set out to achieve. If this were not true, then you would not even have time to sit and discuss unnecessary issues when you actually have work to be done. The sad news which I have to share is that, for most people, their dreams will forever remain so and they would never live those dreams.

There are many times that musicians make claims of their friends stealing their yet to be released songs. Why does this happen? Simple…they would not shut up when they are working on their new projects. The moral here is that, some of your ideas might get stolen and by the time you are ready to start off, somebody probably would be feeding off your ideas. Hence, divert talking energy into working energy and you will grow big. You have only 24hours at a time. Whether you want to talk or work, it’s all up to you.

Another thing is that you end up exposing your ignorance. The good thing about not talking plenty is that you get people to assume you are knowledgeable and wise. This is a feather in your cap. When people see you as a wise person, it prevents them from making attempts to cheat you or take advantage of you. We live in a world in which we ride on each other’s weaknesses to be successful (whether you agree or not). For instance, is it not because you cannot prepare food, that caterers would do so for you for a fee?

Here, they are riding positively on your weakness (not being able to cook) for their success (making profits on the food sold). Such is life. Hence, the last thing you want to do is to expose your ignorance to the whole world. They will cheat you massively and by the time you realize, a lot would have gone down the drain already. Ask questions where necessary, but be careful with your choice of words so that you do not make it too obvious that you lack knowledge. The danger is that, most times, you do not even know that you do not know. Take an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses, but do not make you ignorance too obvious.

Also, you might end up making those who love you feel threatened. Let’s go back to the story of joseph so I can show you something; Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age…And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. 10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed?

Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? (Gen. 37: 2, 9-10). The story tells us from the beginning that Joseph’s father loved him a lot. But in spite of this great love, his father felt threatened when joseph told him about his dreams. The logic here is that, when you talk too much about your dreams, even your loved ones who mean well for you may begin to feel intimidated. Trust me, you do not want that to be your story. Because if it does, you might encounter unimaginable difficulties getting help for the advancement of your plans. You need the support of loved ones on your way, do not talk too much and scare them off. I suggest you keep them in suspense till your handworks speak for themselves.

Last but not least, running your mouth is going to put undue pressure on you. Working at your own pace is the best you can opt for when constructing your set goals. One core part of planning is setting a time frame. When you set a time frame, then you now work according to it and if need be, you can amend it by yourself since you owe nobody a speedy work. What happens when everybody is in the know of your planned projects is that, it puts you under pressure to finish on time so you can meet the expected deadline you bragged to your friends about, and this has the potential to produce shoddy work. Instead of taking your time to do the work at your own pace, you begin to overlook petty mistakes because all you are interested in is to finish that project on time to show your friends that indeed you walked the talk.

Do not tow this path. Keep some of those details about your goals to yourself, and work assiduously to bring them to life at your own time. Take time along the line to evaluate what you have done already, and if need be, go back and polish it. You will marvel at the end result.

There is a lot we could talk about but for the fact that I would begin to bore you with long talk. But the point has been made. It is a blessing to have the ability to talk as there are countless number of people who are deaf and dumb. But this does not give you a license to run your mouth without ever thinking twice about it. Why brag about plans when you have the potential to brag about achievements? Does it make sense? Do not be caught making too many commitments with your mouth. Please minimize the use of your tongue, think more, work out your thoughts, and achieve greatness.

By: Nathan Qarboo Tetteh (Motivational Speaker/ Life Coach) +233244903748 gracyboonathan@gmail.com