Podcast Episode 173 - Personal Growth - Power of Words
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Would you say you’re more positive or negative?
Have you ever automatically called yourself a dummy or idiot after making a mistake?
When you’re in a group of people, and they start complaining, have you ever joined in without even thinking about it?
It’s part 3 of our personal growth series; we’ll unpack the key to personal growth that many people underestimate and miss out on the power it provides.
Today is for you if…
If you’re sick of feeling bad about yourself.
If you desire to enjoy your life more on the way to where you’re going.
If you’re ready to break away from the crowd and harness the incredible power, God gave you to change your life.
We’ve learned personal growth is about growing ourselves so we can serve at a higher level. We’ll also be able to enjoy our life more on the way to where we’re going.
Personal growth starts with beliefs. When we believe right, it leads to fulfilling our destiny, our God-given purpose. When we believe right, it also helps us think right.
“I become what I think about most of the time.” – Earl Nightingale.
So we learn to direct our imagination or thoughts to work for us instead of against us.
To grow into our best selves, we must also harness the power of our words.
“Your beliefs become
Your thoughts.
Your thoughts become
Your words.
Your words become
Your actions.
Your actions become
Your habits.
Your habits become
Your values.
Your values become
Your destiny.”
–Mahatma Gandhi
Your thoughts become your words.
Whatever you think about or dwell on comes out of your mouth.
There is power in our words.
Words can create or words destroy.
We CHOOSE whether we bring life or death with our words.
1 Peter 3:10 NASB
The one who desires life, to love and see good days,
Must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
Evil = inwardly foul or rotten (poisoned).
Deceit = bait used to hook people, especially those festering in excessive, emotional pain (brought on by themselves).
When I made a mistake, I would say, “You idiot, dummy.” Or when I was talking to someone and thought I said something dumb or they didn’t want to hear from me, I said, “just stop talking…no one wants to hear you.”
I’ve literally bit my tongue to stop myself from talking after I’ve said something I wished I hadn’t.
I spoke poisonous words to myself.
Do you know what else I did?
I spoke deceit.
#1 those words are not what God says about me, so I’m deceiving myself.
#2 I would stuff my hurt and pain and tell people I’m okay so I wouldn’t hurt someone else’s feelings. That’s also deceit.
My words matched my thoughts, “you’re not good enough; your opinion or needs isn’t as important as this other person,” which matched my beliefs, “you’re not enough and your voice doesn’t matter.”
As we grow and change our beliefs and thoughts, our words don’t automatically align with our beliefs and thoughts. Why?
Autopilot.
We’ve been saying these negative things about ourselves or others for so long; it’s a habit.
You see negative words used everywhere.
News, friends, co-workers, standing in line at the coffee shop.
Have you ever heard the weather person say, “There’s a 70% chance of sunshine today.” No, we hear, “There’s a 30% chance of rain.”
We’ve conditioned ourselves to say negative things.
Just because everyone’s doing it doesn’t mean we have to live that way.
Change is possible.
We need to get our words working for us instead of against us, just like we do with our thoughts.
Steps to swap out our autopilot:
1. Choose Your Words
You can start with the words you proactively chose to change your thoughts in episode 172. That can give you a clue into what words you’ve been saying need to change.
What positive words do you want to say to yourself?
2. Use the Law of Exchange
Now, exchange the negative words for the positive ones.
Say them out your mouth…There’s power in hearing yourself speak life.
3. Rinse and Repeat
You didn’t recreate your negative word autopilot overnight, and you won’t swap it out for your positive autopilot overnight, either.
Change takes time and consistency.
As you harness the power of our words, you’re growing, and you’ll find that you’re naturally encouraging others with your words too.
To demonstrate this, my husband sent me this text just this morning from a motivation app:
“You need someone who goes out of their way to make it obvious that they want you in their life.”
Then he told me, ”You do this for me daily.”
I can only be this person because I started harnessing the power of my words about myself then I could change the words I speak over Bob too.
You can too, and it will make a massive difference in your life and everyone you come in contact with.
If you know someone, this podcast will help. Would you please share it with them?