The Power of Our Words
Posted on December 15, 2010 by Janie Selby, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Words have enormous power. How do you want to impact the world around you?
Words are used to: build up or tear down; start wars or make peace; ignite fights or settle arguments; inspire or defeat. How many times have we regretted the words we used? How many times would something have turned out differently if we had only chosen different words? How often do we take time to reflect and learn from what we said?
It reminds me of an anonymous poem I read many years ago called, “What did you do with your soul today”? We could easily replace the word “soul” with the word “word” to imagine what I’m talking about.
“What did you do with your words today?”
I thought about this when my son, who was serving in the enlisted ranks of the United States Marines, told me that he was going to apply for the officer’s candidate program. When my son joined the Marines, right out of high school and after the Iraq War had started, I had been waiting for him to get out. I told myself, four years, and that’s it. He’ll be home and out of the military. I would tell myself that I just needed to get through those four years.
When my son was considering this decision, he did not call me, he called his father because he knew all too well that I would try to talk him out of it. When my husband told me the news, I asked him to try to persuade him from making this decision. I spent many nights awake, thinking about my son’s decision and how I hoped we would change his mind.
One particular night I was struck hard with the realization that if I tried to influence our son’s decision to suit my own personal desires, I could forever alter the path that he was intended to follow. I am not suggesting that we never intervene or provide sound and sage guidance. I am suggesting however, that we reflect on the motives behind our words and the advice we give or want to give. We need to be accountable and determine whether or not our words are intended to serve our own self interests or the other person’s.
By shifting our focus, we’ll begin to ask more questions and start to understand the other person’s perspective. We will be less wedded to ensuring that we get our desired outcome.
When we consciously let go of our self interests and motivations we begin to communicate on a whole new level. It’s then that we demonstrate respect towards others. When we take responsibility for our words and let go of our self interests, we begin to to empower and affirm those around us.
“What did you
