Power of words: Do our words have power over us? | my Time — my Life
How you can harness the power of your words to change your relationship with yourself; becoming more successful, compassionate, and a better communicator.
I just came off a Zoom call with my accountability group. I have to say this is an absolutely amazing idea: basically, we're a small group of solopreneurs and the group is our own little mastermind for sharing ideas, brainstorming solutions to each other’s problems and holding each other accountable for reaching our goals.
During the call, something came up that was very profound for me, and I am sure you will benefit from this too. The power of words.
In this article I will answer the question, do our words have power? And give you some useful techniques to harness the power of your words to change your relationship with yourself.
I have worked as a language teacher, translator, and songwriter. English is my native language and I have learned to speak German, Spanish and Italian.
You could say that words are my bread and butter and I place a high value on cultivating a diverse vocabulary in your native language and the language you are learning. As human beings, words are our primary source for communication, all forms of sign language and braille are even based around the formation of words to communicate. So, does that mean the more words you have in your arsenal, the better able you are to communicate? Yes, and no. Communication skills require that you also recognise the power of your words.
Do our words have power?
Words can be used to dramatic effect, to inspire, encourage and heal, or to demotivate, enrage and insult. The simple words we choose in our communication can evoke powerful emotional responses; making us feel happiness, sympathy, or anger and therefore play a powerful tool in manipulating others.
Throughout history, powerful words have been used to encourage masses of people to protest against their governments, to oppress them, and insight them to commit atrocities.
Your words have power over you
I really want to focus on our relationships with our own words. The words that we use reveal a lot about us and the way we perceive the world. Our attitudes, mindset and beliefs.
In the Zoom call that I mentioned earlier, I was describing my goals and how I am leveraging affiliate marketing to reach my own personal goals.
But those weren’t the exact words that I used.
What I said was “I’m hoping to leverage affiliate marketing to reach my own personal goals”
did you notice the difference?
When I was talking to my group I used the word hope. Now there’s nothing wrong with the word hope, in fact, it feels pretty positive, right?
Google gives two definitions of the verb ‘to hope’
- want something to happen or be the case
- intend if possible to do something
Now when we look at using the word hope to describe our goals we can see that we are communicating two things to our unconscious;
and
The power of positive words
So it seems we have to replace our disempowering words with positive words. But what's a good replacement for the word hope?
For me personally, I’ve started using the word will:
or the present continuous tense:
Personally, I won’t use the phrase ‘going to’ or ‘gonna’ — because to me it’s weak, signifying a distant intention, not a plan to be executed.
Identifying the power of your words
Who are you?…
When you ask people these questions, how do they reply? They will usually start by telling you their name. So what is a name? Yep, you guessed it…it’s a word.
Try this now.
Say your name out loud.
Repeat this for about thirty seconds.
At first, you will identify with it; ‘that’s me’. But after a while, you start to notice the way it sounds, the way your mouth and tongue move and feel as you say it, your name is just a word.
You can also do this in writing. Write or type out your name. Now look at it, really look at it. The different letters that make up your name, they’re just lines, symbols. In fact, some of them look bloody weird!
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1–2)
Try this exercise for any word or phrase that you use to identify yourself, but is holding your back or limiting you.
I have done it with words like ‘coward’, or ‘wimp’, and on a very bad day ‘worthless’, ‘useless’, ‘pathetic’. Say the word backwards, slowly, quickly, in a funny voice. If it’s a phrase, mix up the order of the words or create a spoonerism.
You will see that these sounds that your making with your mouth have no control over you, they can turn from something powerful to something powerless. You’re not identifying with them any more, you’re identifying them for what they are. Just Words!
There are probably tons of words you use that ultimately don’t serve you. When you recognise them, try this exercise.
I’m really interested in hearing your thoughts on this. If you’ve identified any limiting words or phrases in your own vocabulary please let me know in the comments section.
Thanks for reading.
Andrew ‘Wilko’ Wilkinson
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Originally published at https://mytimemylife.org.
