Some years ago, a friend who was earning so well and I were talking about how poorly paid employees in Nigeria are. He mentioned how bad he always feels for professionals with family earning below N 200k monthly. “In this Nigeria! How do they survive!?”, he exclaimed jokingly. I just smiled.

Little did he know that even I wasn’t earning that much from my job at the time. But I didn’t want to be pitied, so I played along. For days, I felt so sad and sorry for myself. But as it turns out, that conversation ended up sparking the aggressive action that did change my life for the better.

You see, people will always say or do things that [in]directly hurt you. Truth is, they most likely don’t mean harm; they’re just being themselves. So don’t let it get to you. Rather, make use of their utterance fuel to forge ahead and change your life to their surprise.

And by all means, resist the urge to talk down on other people’s status quo particularly when you aren’t sure how the person you are discussing with is doing. You may be hurting them unknowingly, and they’d loathe you for it.

Learn to mind your tongue. Our words are powerful: they can heal or hurt, break or make. Let yours uplift, and not depress others.