"Silence is an ocean. Speech is a river. When the ocean is searching for you, don’t walk into the river. Listen to the ocean."
Is there any comparison between the small stream of a river with the vast territory of an ocean? The act of movement and making noises makes a river so little. Whereas, the ocean’s silence carries an unfathomable amount of power within.
Somehow, we associate or instead “mistook” the notion of power with loud noises. That’s hardly the truth. In reality, the wisest people make it a point in talking only where it is necessary. However, the real question is: If the silence is also a powerful tool or just a fragment of conventional wisdom?
A great way to put the philosophy of silence to the test is by applying it in your personal life. If you want to see the empowering effects of silence, why not adopt it for a month and see where it gets you? Most sought after communicators and well-known leaders harness silence in their personal lives.
While you prepare for a chatter fast, you should take a look at the following advantages. It would be best to note these down and check from your observations how many of these benefits were you able to score during your silence project.
★ Domination:
When dealing with silent people, you will have a minimal amount of information to make any assumptions about them. It is by default that the quietest person in the room becomes the most dominant one. If you go around telling people everything you think, people will contort and bent it according to their personal opinions. Therefore, silence saves your time and energy to focus on better things and makes you more efficient and powerful.
Only the masters of silence moves have the claim to the most checkmates.
★ Effective Communication:
Words less spoken are as precious as the gemstones. Whereas, frequently spoken words are like the common rocks that are lying around everywhere. Rarity commands a higher level of worth in every walk of life. When you cultivate the habit of talking only where necessary, your opinions will have the worth of rare diamonds.
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
★ Self-restraint:
Would you value the thoughts of a person who speaks without taking some time to think about their words? You can install an automatic self-restraint button inside your subconscious by practicing silence. Without silence, you respond first and think later. With silence, you do the opposite, and that is a critically empowering effect. Leaders have to face many failures and disappointments. The best way to recover from that is by keeping a calm countenance to make the best out of a bad situation.
“Silence. The best way to let someone know that they did wrong.”
★ Listening:
Silence is a quality that activates another critical rule of the leadership that is “listening.” When you are in an overwhelming situation and decide to tackle it with silence, you will observe that you are not in a hurry to give answers. You will start to hear and fully grasp the meaning of what the other people have to say. Both these practices are highlights of being successful. All great leaders have the habit of listening first and responding only when they have all the necessary information.
“Most of the successful people I have known are the ones who do more listening than talking.”
★ Damage control:
The most a person wants to speak and express is in a state of anger or emotions. A wise man once said that the nicest man could not speak well in a fit of passion. When you are in the middle of a torrent of sentimentalities, you might say things that cause damage to your personal or professional relationships. Silence is an efficient way of damage-control and gives you leverage under all circumstances.
“Sometimes saying nothing is the best answer. You see that silence can never be misquoted.”
★ Healthy communication:
When you speak carefully and phrase your replies in small chunks, you can communicate with much more efficiency than ever before. The shorter your sentences are, the more concise they become. Silence helps you practice healthy communication that saves you time and energy.
“You are the most powerful when you are silent. People do not expect silence. They expect words, emotion, defense, offense, back and forth. They expect to leap into the fray. They are ready, fist up, words hanging leaping from their mouths. Silence? No!”
It is evident that silence offers you the power to unleash a tremendous amount of undiscovered potential within yourself. Silence provides you the same strength that nature has bestowed upon the tiny body of an ant and the hidden intensity of the water. Always remember that:
A seed grows with no sounds, but a tree falls with huge noise. Destruction has noise, but creation is quiet. This is the power of silence… Grow silently!