Creating Positive Energy With Your Words
One of the ways we generate energy is in the words we use. Every word spoken or read creates an image and energy in our minds.
Did you know, we actually remember positive words better than negative words! Here’s an example: Don’t dump trash here!
Sounds OK. It communicates! But in your mind, something amazing happens when you read this – amazing but not good.
Why not good? Well, when you read an instruction that is worded negatively, you have to switch tracks from “I can’t dump trash here” to “where in the world AM I supposed to dump the trash!”
What is better and more effective to say is: “Dump trash here.”
Eliminating one word turns the negative order into a positive order that can be easily followed and avoids having to switch around in a thought dilemma, which wastes time and creates negative energy!
Here are a couple more to consider:
| Negative | Positive |
| No, we don’t have that one, we only have this one | What we do have is this one and its features are… |
| I can’t have this ready until Friday | I can have this ready for you on Friday |
| They cannot correct that problem until they redesign the motor | When they redesign the motor, they’re going to correct that problem |
| Our managers don’t communicate with one another | Our managers need to find better ways to communicate with one another |
| We can do this but it… | We can do this and it.. |
Think about the word “problem”. This word actually produces stress because we feel we must solve something and it is likely to be complicated and that we’ll be graded on how we solve the problem.
The word “challenge”, although a vast improvement over the word “problem”, still carries hidden emotional baggage. It comes with feelings that maybe you’ll be “humiliated” if your performance isn’t equal to others or you’ll have to climb over a great obstacle or run a tiring race.
The words “problem” and “challenge” are emotive words, meaning there are feelings and emotions that accompany them. Most of the time we’re unaware of these emotions as the words are so common.
When you see a challenge you naturally begin to see reasons you can’t achieve it…when you see a problem you see failure looming. With both, you’re recognising a manifestation of a fear you have. Once you’re victim to the fear of failure you can’t think in a healthy way.
The answer? Change your perspective.
What if there was no such thing as problems or challenges? What if there were only opportunities to test what you believed, no failures to keep you from trying, and only growth from your experiences?
“What would you attempt to do today if you knew you could not fail?”
There’s huge power in this kind of thinking! (Another good reason for having an objective coach in your life.)
Changing your perspective – just the way you use a word for example – helps you tap into an inner energy to accomplish your dreams. Changing your perspective helps you identify and overcome internal obstacles and barriers so you can succeed.
So think carefully about the words you use and the positive energy they bring to you and to those around you. For example, I changed the way I used the word “but”. I try to avoid it completely where possible. I did not realise that everything you say before you say “but” is in fact cancelled and the person only hears what comes after the “but”. Try for a week not to use the word “but” and see what happens. I would be most interested to hear how you go.
