The Power In Words
The words we choose can have a profound impact upon the experiences we have in life. It therefore makes sense to do so wisely. How do we do that? In today's episode, we'll play with that very thing. Hopefully, if you participate, you'll gain some important insight into how this works and how you might choose words you say to yourself and others that increase your value and power.
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The Power In Words
Much of our power lies in the words we choose to use. “The pen is mightier than the sword.” You've likely heard that phrase. I always thought it was something Thomas Jefferson first made famous, but what he wrote to Thomas Paine was the same basic thought just worded in a different way. Also, the thought was not original to him.
Essentially, the same thing has been written in the Quran, the Bible, and even Ancient Assyria in the writings of Ahikar 3,000 years ago. By the way, the famous concise version of the phrase is commonly credited to English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839. What do they all mean? They're all pointing to the power of words. Specifically, they mean that more profound and permanent social changes happen by persuading people's thought patterns and by physically forcing people to conform to our will.
Words have the power to persuade, and that process begins within our own minds. Words capture concepts. They're how we express meaning. Processing that meaning to expand and refine our understanding of the world is a decent description of what thinking is. How we think influences how we perceive our world and ourselves within it. To put it mildly, some thoughts or words are better than others when it comes to building our personal power.
Words have the power to persuade, and that process begins within our own minds
Let's take a closer at how this works. Let's use basic building blocks and three-word phrases. If you had to pick a three-word phrase that is the most limiting as it relates to your personal power, what comes to your mind? A few examples that occur to me are, “I'm a failure. I am unworthy. I can't succeed. It isn't possible. Nothing really matters. Nobody loves me. Life is tragic.”
Maybe you can come up with others. Let's do a little experiment together. Get ready to pause this program at this point when you're able to do the following. Get some paper and something to write with. Write down the three word phrases I just listed plus the ones you can think of. Once you've done that, say them out loud slow and deliberate like this, “I'm a failure. I am unworthy. I can't succeed. It isn't possible. Nothing really matters. Nobody loves me. Life is tragic.”
Add the ones you came up with and then take a moment to reflect. Go ahead and do that now. I don’t mind waiting. Welcome back. How do you feel? Probably not as good as you did before we started together. These words represent thoughts that are so deflating. We can feel their effects when all we do is merely try them on for size. Can you imagine their power in the cases when we believe them?
Not to worry because we're about to turn it around. The last thing I want to do is bring you down. Now, we'll experiment with the opposite. What three-word phrases do you think make us feel uplifted, energetic, and powerful? Here are a few examples to get your wheels turning. “I am worthy. I am able. Life is wonderful. I am loved. I love everyone. I'm a winner. I am powerful. I actually matter.” On a fresh page, write these and add your own. Please, don't skip this.
Once you've written down as many empowering three-word phrases as you can, again, speak them out loud. This time, I want you to do what you can to feel them deeply. First, acknowledge the truth behind the words as much as you possibly can. When you say them, say them clearly and deliberately as though you're trying to persuade someone you love who desperately needs to believe them. “I am loved. Life is wonderful.” Take your time. Maybe twice as much as you did with the first exercise. Again, I don't mind waiting. This time, it'll be worth it. Go ahead and pause now and put your full effort into this exercise.
Welcome back again. How did it go? I hope and expect that you feel a lot better. Maybe even better than you did before you began reading the episode. Please send me a message to let me know. I'm hoping this experiment clearly illustrates to all of us the power of our words and by extension, our ideas. Thoughts can lift us and they can imprison us. To manifest our full power, we must be diligent curators of the ideas we choose.
Some like the ones we experimented with are easily identified. Others, not so much. There's a special three-word case that I'd like us to consider. These three words can serve as an example in both categories. They can limit and they can empower. Can you guess what they might be? “I don't know.” That's right. It's, “I don't know.” In many circumstances, “I don't know” is an extremely limiting phrase. There are many nuggets of wisdom that when we don't know them, we pay their price.
Power Of Words: The words “I don’t know” can both limit and empower.
We don't know what we don't know and ignorance is not bliss. It routinely means the difference between health and suffering even life and death. Filling crucial knowledge gaps is the quest of all of our lifetimes because the set of things we don't know always dwarfs what it is we do know. That's due to the reality that the world is far more complex than our relatively feeble powers of perception can comprehend.
This is also why “I don't know” is also one of the most empowering phrases, too. We acknowledge our cognitive limits by admitting that we don't know all that is going on in any scenario. When we do so, several important benefits open to us. First, we acknowledge what is real and true. We don't know. Not really. In the vast majority of cases, the things we think we know are incomplete versions of the true picture.
By acknowledging that our picture, our model of reality is always a work in progress. We gain in humility. We gain an honesty. We gain in openness and curiosity. We remain in the discussion with people rather than a part sitting in judgment. When we embrace the possibility that we don't know, our chance of expanding the quality of our words and our thoughts increases dramatically.
When we embrace the possibility that we don't know, our chance of expanding the quality of our words and our thoughts increases dramatically.
This is one of the best ways to build our ability to curate those words we habitually use. In so doing, our very thoughts become more powerful. It doesn't take long for that improvement to show up in the circumstances of our lives, the quality of our relationships, the value we can deliver to others, the gifts of the spirit, and the inner joy and peace that comes with wisdom. That's a place worth going to. Let's go.