Today morning one of my friends shared a picture in our group with seven points listed for happiness. The first in the list was ‘Talk less, listen more’ Now this is something that I have been seeing a lot, also something that has set my brain ablaze with questions. How does it work, How? How? How?

Don’t get me wrong. I agree with the general idea expressed. What’s burning up my grey cells is this:

When we talk less and listen more, are we not encouraging someone else to talk more? So in effect for every ‘listen more’ that you do, you are actually enabling another person to ‘talk more’, that is go against a chance for their own happiness. Does that mean you are the block to their finding happiness by selfishly feeding your own?

Here’s another scenario. What if the others have also taken the ‘talk less, listen more’ suggestion to heart, and are hoping you’d ‘talk more’ and let them ‘listen more’, but at the same time you, hoping for happiness yourself are not prepared to oblige? That will be an impasse hard to surmount.

Here’s a scary thought. What if the whole world thought this way? Everyone trying to outdo the other in talking less and less, vying with each other for more and more share of the listening part to themselves? The world will be one hell of a silent place.

If that’s not foreboding enough, here’s another one from the same basket: Give More, Take Less. Can you imagine the chaos the world will descend to with everyone trying to be givers and no one wanting to be takers? Who will the givers give to if everyone wants to get in the ‘take less’ bandwagon?

This is of course written in a lighter vein, and yet I’ll say this in conclusion: Happiness is not more of one and less of the other, it is both, equally. At least that’s what I believe.

©️ Shail Mohan 2025