Member-only story
Should You Open Yourself Up and Share With More People?
You alone have the answer — but here’s why I think it’s YES.
Secrets can be useful in many ways.
When it comes to national security, for example, certain secrets keep people from hacking into various systems and shutting down the power grid or something equally bad.
Secrets also can make room for surprises. You can’t throw a good surprise party for someone if you don’t make secret plans and keep that someone out of the loop.
But secret-keeping can become habitual. Things that don’t need to be secret become closely guarded, and you share less and less. Before you know it, you’re a mystery to most who encounter you.
This, unfortunately, can lead to a bigger issue. The more secrets you keep, the more closed you become. When you become more closed, you start to be a mystery not just to those who encounter you — but also to yourself.
One way to counter this is by sharing with more people. But should you? Thar depends on a lot of factors.
Let’s begin by defining what opening up and sharing might be worth including.
