Discretion

​I saw a word this morning I do not see often. Discretion. Someone once said that judgement is not always required, but discretion is. To me it is something that is most obvious when it is most absent. It is no wonder another commented that a prudent enemy is preferred to a friend without discretion.
Based on my experience I think that is right. I prefer to run a mile than to have what is said in confidence declared to all. That is not my intention. I may know I need assistance and have told someone something in the hope of getting it. If that person then blabs, I will not be inclined to trust them. There is a good chance I will like them, but there is no chance I will share my needs with them.
There may be a time and place for declaring a need I had and how I had a win, but when I share something in confidence it is not the time or the place to reveal what I am going through. Sharing in confidence is the key for me. Something shared with all is not something shared in confidence. Often there comes a time when something shared in confidence can be shared with all. But until the sharer says that state has been reached, then discretion must remain.
To me, it is up to the sharer themselves to make public what may have been told me in confidence. I may be excited for another. What has transpired in their life may have resulted in a newfound freedom, but I do not believe that is mine to share until they share it themselves or declare sharing it is ok. I do not want to steal their thunder, or presume something too early. Mostly it is a long-haul thing. The declarer often looks foolish when victory is declared too early. Wining makes a winner. Declaring I am a winner before the fight can only ever be a strategy until the bout. Winning a round does not make me a winner. Winning the fight does.
I have had to act with what I believe was discretion on a few occasions. Not sharing confidential information shared with me is a no brainer. I would rather a long-term friendship than the short-term gain that comes with sharing a “did you know?”
The discretion I have had to exercise was based on, is the short-term gain of revealing this matter, worth more than the long-term gain of keeping it quiet? When I have felt things needed revealing I have not hesitated to do so. However the sharing of some matters seems like scoring cheap points but not winning the fight. Sometimes I think more is achieved through silence than speech.
Discretion has a few meanings, like when I am told decisions are up
to me based on my discretion (how I see fit). Allowing things like that are normally based on a track record. Responsibility is given based on trust. Trust to me can take ages to earn and very easily be lost.
It seems I need to consider the words that would be used to describe me. If words like blabber, untrustworthy, fraud come to mind, then I reckon I have missed it. Words like discreet, honest, reliable are more in keeping with the track I want to follow.
I’m working on it.