Stop Telling People Everything

You know when people say don’t reveal your next move or your plans to people, or stop telling people everything, In a way, I have always found this saying hard to grasp because, if you don’t tell people your situation, how will they know when and how help you? What I’m saying is no man is born to be an island and you’ll need people at some point in your life. You’ll need people to put you through, guide you, and show you directions.

Let me use myself as an example. About three years ago, when I was still studying at my undergraduate level, I was given a very small project to work on and I decided that you know what I’m going to test this saying out and see how well I perform in the end, so I told no one about the project.

Of course, I did my research on the project, and I went online to get guidance and I was pretty confident that it would turn out to be a really wonderful project.

The day came for me to present my work and when I got up to begin my presentation, a lot of my friends and even the people around me, I would say, were a bit shocked to find out that I was given the project to work on and didn’t mention anything about it because it was quite a huge deal.

I could hear whispers of *why didn’t she tell us* but what’s done is done and I was going to present it. As I began my presentation, I wasn’t confident and bold enough to speak well, my body language was giving a totally different message, I rushed everything and a presentation that was supposed to take 45 minutes of simple and clear explanation was done in under 15 minutes.

The lecturers were not happy, and as a matter of fact, if I could translate the expression on their faces into words, it would be, *we should have given it to somebody else.

After I was done with the presentation, a friend of mine came over and asked, “why didn’t you tell us and then we would have helped you or guided you on how to do it”. I couldn’t say a word because I thought I was doing the right thing, but my performance and judgment of the whole situation was below average and underwhelming.

In all fairness, I would have asked somebody to show me how to do it. What did I learn from that experience? It is this, if you don’t know how to do something, reach out to people who can help you and don’t rely on yourself thinking that you can do a great job.

“Stop revealing your plans to people”

I don’t think I understand this thing well enough or maybe I apply it in the wrong situations. I even read books on really successful people in life and they say the same thing too, but I don’t understand what they mean.

I’m still struggling to come to terms with what the saying truly means and how to apply it. If you can help me with a clearer understanding, I would really appreciate it because lately I’ve been going through tough challenges and, in all honesty, I need help.

So do I agree with the saying? Not entirely. I feel like if you need help with your plans, you should reach out to people who know better and have pure intentions.

Source: medium.com/oyinade