Are your thoughts and ideas overlooked because you are holding yourself back?

This past weekend, my husband and I went on a two-hour road trip. The weather was perfect, the traffic was light, and we had some great sing-along music on the radio.

The atmosphere was perfect for one of those wide-ranging, philosophical conversations you don’t always have time to have even when you live in the same house. Our conversation reminded me of a great podcast that I had meant to share with him so I offered to ‘pair’ my phone with his car’s technology so that we could listen easily through the car speakers.

I followed the easy steps quickly and waited for him to be as enthusiastic about the information as I was. There was only one problem. My phone indicated that the podcast was running but we couldn’t hear anything. We turned the blue tooth on and off, re-paired the devices, tried playing something different . . . all with no results. After a good ten minutes of effort, we suddenly realized – the volume on the car radio was turned down!!

As we continued our drive, I started musing about how many times I had had a great idea or something really interesting to say either in a group or in a one-to-one meeting where I had self-censored myself by not speaking up. Essentially, I was participating with my volume turned down.

Often after the fact, I felt frustrated because someone else spoke up and offered a similar idea and was now getting credit for something I knew all along. Or worse, I was now in a position to be taking an initiative forward in a way that I thought could be improved but I had failed to point that out when the opportunity had presented itself.

My resolution is to turn up my volume, put myself out there, speak up more often. I am convinced that having faith that my views are worth sharing and doing just that will lead to unexpected life opportunities personally and professionally.