Watch What You Say: Why Your Mouth Might Be Your Biggest Enemy

There is an old Jamaican proverb that my grandmother’s generation passed around like seasoning salt, and it goes like this: “cock mouth kill cock“. Translation for those who need it: your own mouth will be the thing that gets you. Not your enemies. Not bad luck. Not circumstance. You.

I know that lands hard. Good. It is supposed to.

We live in a culture that rewards oversharing. Social media has convinced us that transparency is a virtue, that being an open book makes us authentic, that telling our truth loudly and often is the same thing as being healed. But there is a difference between being open-hearted and being careless with your words, and that difference has consequences.

Your mouth is writing checks your life cannot cash. Every time you announce a plan before it is finished, you hand someone the blueprint. Every time you vent to the wrong person, you give them ammunition. Every time you explain yourself to people who were never genuinely invested in your success, you spend energy that belongs to your work. And here is the part nobody wants to say out loud: not everyone who is listening is rooting for you.

I am not asking you to become cold or closed off. That is not the lesson. The lesson is discernment. It is learning the difference between a safe person and a curious one. Some people in your life are collecting information, not offering support. They ask the right questions. They lean in at the right moments. And then they use what you gave them in ways you never intended. You trusted them with your rough draft and they shared it with people who only deserved the finished product.

Silence is not weakness. It is strategy. It is protection. It is wisdom that most of us had to learn the painful way, after the dream got derailed because we talked too soon, or the relationship shifted because we said more than the moment required, or the opportunity closed before we even had a chance to pursue it because someone else knew about it before it was ours to claim.

You do not owe anyone access to your process. You are allowed to be in motion without announcing every step. You are allowed to heal without performing it. You are allowed to plan in private, celebrate in private, and grieve in private. Your life does not need a live commentary.

So the next time you feel the urge to explain, to justify, to update, or to share before something is solid, pause. Ask yourself who is actually in the room with you, literally and figuratively. Ask yourself whether the person you are about to tell is someone who will hold your words carefully or someone who will hold them against you.

Cock mout kill cock. Your ancestors were not wrong. And neither is your gut when it tells you to be still.