Every year for Christmas, there is a daily calendar wrapped up—the Life’s Little Instruction Daily Calendar to be exact. I’m always amazed at how someone can continue to come up with so many insights year after year. I only recall seeing a duplicate a handful of times. Each morning, I enjoy flipping to the next day’s card while sipping a freshly brewed cup of coffee.

This past week, one of the insights really spoke to me:

Don’t remain silent about the things that matter most to you.

I invite you to read it again and notice what emerges for you around the concept of silence and what things matter most to you. I am going to admit that not only did I read this twice, I’ve read it multiple times and even took a photo of it and put it on social media. It’s gotten quite the attention!

How many times have you been in a conversation where you wanted to say something but were worried about what others might think? Or maybe you didn’t think your opinion mattered. Maybe you were feeling some imposter syndrome. Fill in the blank with why you didn’t speak up when you wanted to say something.

Have you ever been in a conversation where you said something and then felt like it was dismissed? Maybe you were interrupted. Maybe you didn’t feel heard. Again, the list could go on and on.

There is a lot at stake here, my friends. Whether we aren’t saying anything at all or we are speaking and not being heard or seen, there is a cost. One is a choice to not have our voice heard. The other is our voice being silenced by someone else. My vote is that every voice matters and when we care about something enough to want to give voice to it, the mattering meter goes way up.

Here are a few key points:

• If something matters to you, it matters that you do something about it.
• Staying silent when you disagree with what is being said can be perceived as agreeing with what is being said.
• Things that matter to us tie directly to our core values, our way of being in the world.

This leads to a few key questions:

• What does it look like to give voice to the things that matter to you?
• Where is staying silent getting in the way of how you want to show up in the world?
• What is one thing you can do now to give voice to something that is important for you?

Thank you for the opportunity to give voice to something that matters to me.