Share The Things That Are Important To You

No one knows what you care about if you don't tell them. Such an obvious and simple statement, but a surprising amount of people are terrified to share the things they care about. And they live a less fulfilling life as a result.

Fear of judgement, being made fun of, or bullied for the things you care about keeps a lot of people silent. People with bad intentions know that picking at the things you care about is the easiest way to get under someone's skin. As a result, a lot of people end up hiding these things to keep themselves safe. No one can hurt you if they don't know where you can be hurt.

But what is a person besides what they care about? Almost everything unique about a person is down stream from what they care about most. This can be as big as the care that parents have for their children, to as small as caring about your favorite book series. When you try to hide away the things you care about, you are locking away the parts of yourself that flow down from that care.

This is one reason why so many people in the business world come across as stunted and boring. People hide away the things they care about while they're at work, they round off all their unique edges to fit into their place as a cog in the machine. I'm not saying here that "professionalism" is a bad thing. But some people twist themselves into knots for their job but don't know how to unwind themselves even when they get outside of work.

“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.”
― Audre Lorde

You start to lose yourself when you don't talk about what matters to you. Sure, you can become a parrot seeking status by pretending to like whatever the person you are talking to does or saying you like whatever is highly valued by society. But eventually you'll find yourself surrounded by people who really do care about the things you are pretending to like and at that point you'll be alone in the crowd. This might lead to some temporary social success but there's no sustainable happiness there.

This behavior made a bit more sense when people had to survive life in smaller groups where there's just not enough people around to connect on all the niche things you care about. But in the modern world where we are connected to billions of people through the internet, there's so much more to be gained by talking about the things you care about.

And once you start talking about the things you care about, you'll find and attract other people that care about the same things and that will open up the opportunity to build connections. And these building connections is one of the most fulfilling things you can do in life, even if it is "just" with other people online.

So step out of your shell, stop being a lurker, and start sharing your thoughts and feelings about the things you care about. Post about them on Twitter, forums, or your own blog. You don't need to have profound thoughts to share them. More than any other reason, you need to share these things to keep what is unique about you alive inside of you. And along the way you'll also be putting out a signal to attract people that care about the same things that you do. It's a win on multiple levels and an important step towards building a more fulfilling life.