In our language, we exist, declare what we envision, get innovative, and live our humanity. Have you paused for some time to give this a thought? Dialectics, communication, information, interactions, etc., comes from long-held language and wording humans modeled to create an environment we wish for.
J.F Kennedy said America would put a man on the moon in 1961, and the rest is history. The innovation has led to many means of traveling, communication, and scientific research. The declaration and promise were pregnant with many possibilities, and it has been a fantastic experience and transformational to the world. From which depth did these words come from, because they are not an accident or mere assertions.
Martin Luther King said, “I have a dream…..” but the question is, why and how did it make meaning to many people? What was the dream, and how did it trigger a passive violent approach in strategy? Why do we still quote him today?
Our perspective, insight, understanding, interpretation, declarations, promise, requests, communications, etc., which forms our worldview, all emanate from our language and words.
How you describe yourself, empower, show love, and defend your territory, all is done through language in its micro sense of the word.
In this period of world pandemic and its transitioning, what you declare, promises you give or hold, contracts you will bid for, proposals you will make, relationships you will keep and drive, will all be out of language and wording.
Start thinking about what frames and forms; shape and incites your actions and inactions. What is inspiring and demotivating your life? What shifts and challenges your desires in life? We all come here with intrinsic language and get it model with what humans have established.
Mothers understand their babies best, though babies cannot speak. How are mothers able to decode all the types of crying of babies? When they are hungry, wet, and poo in their pampers, pain, and sheer need of attention and pampering.
Pause, think, reminisce, and ask, why do I do what I do? Why do I speak the way I do, and what do I say to the world I am? Our business, life, thoughts, and relationships philosophy are all dictated by language and words. According to Inc, 75 percent of successful achievers had troubled upbringing and family issues. Then the question is, how did they shift from that quagmire of defeat to winning ways? Though it is not a simple feat, but a shift in one’s language and wording stimulate actions that bring things into being.
To have a fantastic experience, you need to consider your language and wording in your daily transactions and interactions.
Lisa Nichols tells her story in many interviews, and this part sums up her shift in language and words that triggered an action that changes her world of poverty into a billionaire and an influencer. “ I had my hands placed on Jelani’s stomach, and I said, don’t worry baby; mummy, would never be this broke or broken again.”
She said that, after making these declarations, she noted what shifted for her was because she was willing to completely die to any form of hers that she has been for which she got so broke or broken. She can birth the woman she was becoming as evidence of the declarations she had made. The shift in her worldview occurred by languaging and wording.
What does the following mean to you?
Reject vs. Decline, Help vs. Support, Look vs. observe, Giving vs. Taking, Sacrifice vs. Investment, Lead vs. Order, Service vs. Servant, Love vs. Sex, Communications vs. Talking, Listening vs. Hearing, Leadership vs. Authority, Power vs. People, Duty vs. Responsibility, Legitimacy vs. Wisdom, and Resilience vs. Survival
How does the above and other similar examples show up for you? I believe a lot is running through your mind, but none is new to you. The awareness is critical; the awakening and practice of reorienting your strings of language and words are essential to the results we seek in all our endeavors. I suggest you challenge your language and wording status quo by signing onto a coaching service where the coach worth his salt would hold space for possibility shift for you to explore. Coaching is a thought-provoking exercise where a coach holds a space of possibility for a client to be the author of the dreams and purposes they want to live.
You can read my co-authored article, “why great achievers hire coaches.” to aid you in understanding more why the need to hire a coach on a pursuit that challenges self and other endeavors status quo. Coaches bring to your awareness patterns, actions, attitudes, etc., that forms your world view based on your formed and held language and words. They come in handy to support you to shift and recommit to remodeling your world view.
Oprah Winfrey told a painful story of her growing up, but she had to shift and reposition her language and words, which turned her dreams and aspirations into reality. We are all actors of our formed and stereotyped languages and words. But interestingly, we are quick to define that of other than ours.
What results do you, with integrity and trust, wish to see? If you play games in your mind, which is the platter you serve your language and words, your actions will produce just that.
What is the language and wording around your business and staff? How are you revealing yourself to your team? What results is showing? Can you troubleshoot these for reorientation and attitudinal shift!
Every field codified its language, e.g., strategy, code, intelligence, project, management, leadership, investment, network, etc. And these codes become evidence when the corresponding energy and effort are deployed. When challenges occur in engineering, they conduct troubleshooting, meaning finding where a “bug” of language or word is hiding contrary to their intent. Auditors also conduct auditing to sanction a language or word as a substance to evidence of integrity. Doctors perform a series of laboratory tests to determine what language or word is causing a situation that is evident in a patient’s ill health.
Have you assessed why those results show up in your relationship, team, career, business, and other domains in your life?
As a business owner, start-up, professional, or student, why are you here, what is your purpose? How is it to shape you and others? What language and words characterize your skill currency, performance currency, and relationship currency?
You wonder why you are skilled, but you get delayed for promotion? Have you asked why you perform skillfully, yet you are not getting a promotion? Remember, you cannot control anyone’s language or word except yours. So that is where you can influence. Invest in your language and wording.
Self-love, optimism, team-spirit, growth mindset, goal setting, resilience, service, responsibility & accountability, positive thinking & wording, drive, passion, and partnership are powerful altering words to string consistently in your language to trigger a winning, can-do, possibility, and fulfillment spirit.
Task yourself to meditate on the above for a month, be conscious of their usage, and observe things yourself. Post COVID-19 is pregnant with potentials and possibilities so far as you alter your language to take advantage of it.
The writer is Transformational Coach| Certified Professional Training| Consultant| author