To Share or Not to Share, That is the Question

Often in life we come across many opportunities to voice our opinions. In this great country we are privileged enough to have freedom of speech. I wonder if I take full advantage of this right that I am lucky enough to have. Many a time I have been asked, confronted, put in situations where it is certainly appropriate to share my views. On life, on politics, on situational matters, even just the daily chatter of what is happening in our society today. No matter the situation, I hold my tongue. I, for the most part anyway, try to tell people what they want to hear. I don't know what to do about it. Yes, I should speak my mind, but what if doing that causes everyone I'm working with (on a project or something similar) to hate me, to automatically shut me down, to hate me, to mock me, to be rude to me. I'd like to have as little enemies as possible in this life. I don't want some silly little opinion of mine to affect the way someone feels about me before knowing that one opinion. I'm such a people pleaser. I am working so hard and trying to learn how to voice my opinions and how I feel about things while a) sounding intelligent and well-versed and b) not stepping on peoples' toes. Why let something petty ruin a friendship or the like? I'm slowly beginning to understand that no matter what I do, someone, somewhere won't like me, won't agree with me, may even hate me or my ideas, the standards I live by, or even just the friends I have. I feel this come up most commonly around gossip. First, let me just say, you may judge me for gossiping if you can honestly say you never have (so that would be no one). Especially when you're stuck in the middle, friends of two opposing sides. What if you see and understand both sides. What if you just hate conflict. What if you'd rather not gossip about it at all and you hate confrontation? I'm not the type to be able to say "hey, let's just not" without feeling guilty for some bizzaro unknown reason. It also seems so hard to me to understand when it is appropriate to share how I feel, especially if it will cause conflict. This is one of my greatest faults. I am a people pleaser. I am trying so hard to start to stand up not only for myself, but for what I believe in as well. I will try NOT to sit idly by as others lead life for me.