How Speaking Up Helped My Life For the Better
Speaking up for myself helped me more than I could have ever imagined.
“The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to it’s limited in voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.” — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
This quote is so true for me. It represents how I feel every time I reflect on my past and what I have gone through. Knowing that the difficult parts of life are the most worthwhile.
One of the difficult parts of my life has been speaking up. Speaking up has opened a whole world of opportunities for me. It gave me a ton of confidence in myself. I can’t imagine my life if I hadn’t spoken up about things in life. But looking back, it can’t be farther from the truth.
Fighting The Status Quo
When I was younger, I was always a shy boy. I remember faintly a moment when a family member asked me what present I would want for my birthday, I shied up and said I wanted nothing. Speaking up was hard for me, really hard.
Have you ever wondered when you should talk in a conversation? I do. Most of the time in meetings, I always wonder if I would respond to something or not. Responding was never the obvious answer to me. It still isn’t
Not everything needed to be responded to. Not to say that pacifism is a good thing. It is just not the exact thing you always should do.
The hardest question is always why. Why should I speak up? Why should I share my opinion with other people? and most importantly, Why is my point relevant for me?
These are the baselines of my judgment at times when I want to speak up for things I deem necessary.
The Moment I Did
When I am reflecting on the past, I realized most of the best moments in my life was when I chose to speak up. To be honest, not all the moments were good. Some were better than others, but the good ones have interesting stories.
Having the courage to say “I’m interested”
One of the interesting stories would be the time I organized a TEDx event at my university. TEDx is a non-profit event hosted independently licensed by TED Conferences LLC.
One morning when at work, I was watching a TEDx video and thought “Why have I never heard of a TEDx event hosted by my university?”. Then I searched online and I saw the latest TEDx event hosted was 3 years ago. This was in 2019.
I thought it would be an awesome opportunity to have one of those events again this year or even next year. So I texted the student activity staff at my university and asked to meet them at lunch. I chose to speak up.
When I was there I told the story of how I was searching for a TEDx event online and I didn’t find anything. I also told them that I was interested in organizing the event.
Luckily for me, it turns out one of the staff members is interested in hosting a TEDx event. We agreed on a collaboration between us, me as a student organizer and they would be the university representatives responsible for the event.
The event happened. Even I was surprised. Details of the event can be seen here.
The euphoria made me feel like the luckiest I have ever been. Not because I organized a TEDx event, but because something I chose to speak up about in a split second during work — happened.
Having the courage to start an initiative
Every year my company recruits undergrads to work part-time. We have this program of sharing knowledge with them. Training them to code and how to work in teams. Though there seems to be a lack of documentation for teaching and no media for knowledge sharing between teams. So I thought of an initiative.
I thought of making a learning management system (or LMS for short) so the learning curriculum would be stable and trainers would not have a hard time searching for teaching materials as it would all be centralized
So I approached HR and proposed this project. To help people learn. Since I work on a university campus, I thought it might be a good idea to have the LMS be available for the students there as well.
HR-approved of my project and gave me the responsibility to gather my own team of new recruits to develop the app. Long story short after 3 months of grueling project management and coding. The app was ready.
I presented the app in front of HR and my manager. They were impressed and ended up talking about a phase 2 development. Gamifying the entire learning process to make it more interesting.
I was so happy that people were interested in my idea and supported me all the way.
In the end, speaking up is not only about responding, but it is also about sharing your ideas with others.
The Euphoria
The beauty of it all is. It didn’t end there. These stories were not the first time I chose to speak up nor would it be the last. Moments like these help grow my self-confidence.
I would have never been who I am today if I hadn’t spoken up.
I truly believe that we should all try to speak up, at work, at home, anywhere. For good or for bad we should try to share our ideas and opinions with others. We never know the good that it would bring.
I feel that I have an opportunity just like every other person in this world has. The euphoric sense helped me achieve more opportunities at work and other aspects of life.
The Take-Away — 3 Things To Remember
1. Responsibilities.
Learning to speak up is one thing, but being able to walk the talk is a whole other beast. Most people are confident enough to say what they want, but few have ever tried to achieve it.
Finishing what you started. That is the responsibility that we have to uphold.
Honestly, when I was organizing the TEDx event I was always careful to not disappoint the people who held my words. I am extra careful about that. Because I don’t want it to be a bad memory for me. It was an opportunity. I have to live up to it, at least on my end.
A strong sense of courage must be paired with a similarly strong sense of responsibility. One cannot function without the other.
What I am trying to say is. Be responsible for your words. Don’t ever say things you would not do. Be honest. Stay truthful.
2. You Have A Choice — You Always Do.
Probably one of the best things in life is maybe one of the most dreadful things about it. Having a choice.
My experience is no way a reason for you to speak up. It was one of the results of when I spoke up. Different times calls for different action. You are the sole judge of what you should speak up about.
Either being an activist of a certain group or ideology, speaking up about yourself and what you yourself want, or even staying silent. In the end, you are the best judge of what must become of you.
3. Your Ideas Matter.
Looking back at my past, I am really proud of what I have achieved. Most of my best achievements are a direct result of me speaking up either for an idea or for myself.
It took some time, but I realized most of the things holding me back from speaking up was all in my head. I understood the importance of having an opinion. I understood that no matter how minuscule, my ideas matter and sometimes can come as a consideration.
I can proudly say that the good that had come from me speaking up outweighs the bad. Speaking up has opened a whole world of opportunities for me. I hope it would for you too.
