For the longest time, I thought I knew everything. Not realizing that I really knew nothing. Anytime somebody would ask me something I would have an answer. Whenever my mother would reprimand me I would talk back until I felt like I had gotten the last word. Now, don’t judge me for talking back that was just my way of showing I knew it all. 

Now that I’m older and understand its better to open your ears and close your mouth. I realize that its power in knowledge and understanding. When I say power in knowledge and understanding, I mean you have to learn something before you can understand it. If you don’t agree with me, tell me the last time you went to a new job knowing everything and being successful.

I bet you weren’t, somebody needed to teach you how things worked in that new environment.  You had to open your ears and close your mouth so you could learn how to work this new job to the best of your ability. Now I bet you are saying, psst you know nothing of what you are saying. Well, I do. I had to learn this the hard way. 

There is something to be said about listening and not talking when the class is in session. For so long I had this walk through life attitude thinking I knew how my life would go because I have a type A personality. I want it to be this way or it’s no way at all. If wasn’t happening the way I like it I felt that it shouldn’t be done. Kinda messed up thinking, right.  Yeah, it is. Until I finished school and started to see that life does not give you instructions on what you should do next. Let me tell you, I was so wrong about thinking I knew everything. I really knew nothing about how life really works. Until I open my ears and closed my mouth.

This thing called life will humble you to the point of no return. It will take things from you and it will never give you things you want. It will only give you the things you need. Furthermore, life was design to show you that it has ample opportunities but not every opportunity is yours for the taken.

This thing called life can put you in a funk and leave you there for days.  With no sight of light until it feels like you’ve humbled yourself enough to take the next step. Let me enlighting you friend when I say humble yourself to this class called Life because it has some storms you don’t want to see. It will teach you something before it allows you keep moving on the destructive path your on. 

 There is no teacher here to tell you the rules you need to follow. I will say there is a lesson that you will learn though. Before you leave this earth you’ll have many lessons in a class called life 101. If you don’t get the first lesson don’t worry there will be thousands more where the first one came from.

Some will leave you questioning why these lessons keep knocking you down. Here a little help maybe your just not listening to what this lesson is trying to tell you. Maybe you should try a different approach to solving this problem that only keeps repeating itself. Maybe open your ears and close your mouth. 

It also a beautiful thing when you have people who’ve had similar struggles as you to give pointers. It’s also easy to write them off thinking they know nothing. This is where you need to humble yourself because there are people in this world who are not trying to dictate to you but trying to help you. Sometimes those people can be older than you and younger than you. Those same people you are writing off can help you see the light at the end of the tunnel. In the end, it can bring you peace just by opening your ears and closing your mouth. 

Try it the next time someone is giving you advice on something. Open your ears and close your mouth. Then ask yourself how can I apply that to my everyday life. I now understand the term it’s better to listen than talk all the damn time. As my mother would say, it’s better to be seen and not heard.  

Trust me, I love to talk but I love to listen more. 🙂