The Power of Words: Choose and Use Wisely

The Power of Words

I wanted to bring you this really quick but very important post on the power of words. This is a critical topic, and equally relevant in your personal life as in your work life. Words are mightier than the sword. And they can either uplift people, or they can cause pain, and they can sting, and they can make people feel miserable, hurt, small, belittled and not worthy. It is extremely important that we choose our words carefully and wisely.

It is Your Responsibility

As the deliverer of the message, it is your responsibility to ensure that the words that you use, convey the message in the way that you wanted and intended it to be conveyed. It is your responsibility to analyze how the receiver is going to interpret the message and the environment in which the message is absorbed and received, as well as any distortions that may come up in the environment that may alter the message. What do I mean by that?

Negative Impact of Words

A simple statement can be interpreted by the other person in a very different way. You may be joking about it, but the other person may be extremely hurt by what you just said, even though you didn’t mean it like that. It doesn’t matter what you intended to mean. The question is-how does the receiver of the message interpret the message when they get it? It’s your responsibility to preempt how they would analyze that and tweak your message accordingly.

We are all human beings, we are imperfect, we have our issues and our challenges and our pressure points. We are sensitive about certain topics, and certain things. So even if you are meaning to be joking about it, or taking it lightly, if it is one of those pressure points, the other person may view it very differently. I experienced this recently, and it caused a lot of damage. I had to apologize, even though I was joking about it, the other person did not think it like that, and it was a serious conversation.

Positive Impact of Words

The flip side of that is that the words that you choose can be very uplifting as well. You can praise somebody, you can commend them for a job well done, and you can appreciate what they did. And you can shower them with justified praise, recognition, and rewards. The words that you choose can be uplifting or they can pull somebody down and the words can alter a person’s state of being and their feelings.  Feelings is what drives the emotion, and the emotion is what drives the behavior and actions. So the words are the tip of the spear- please be very careful as to how you choose them and how you use them and how you deliver them. If you have any questions or clarifications, please email us at coach@maximizeu.life and thanks.