The Power of Words

Words. Your words. Scripture says there is life and death in the tongue. Your words are powerful and they play an integral part in the quality of your life. How and what you say to others as well as how and what you say to yourself has a far greater impact on where you are right now and where you will be in the future than almost anything else you do.

I'm listening to an audiobook by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen. The chapter I just concluded covered the area of "empowering questions." These are questions you ask yourself. It comes down to the words you're using and what those words are doing to program your brain for your experience on this planet. If you find yourself asking things like, "Why am I so far in debt?" or "Why do bad things always happen to me?" or "Why can't I ever get a break?" - guess what, your brain will go to work finding answers to those questions. Sad, huh? Wouldn't it be better to ask empowering questions and get your mind working on answers to questions that are going to move you in the direction you want?

In the Bible, nothing happened "in the beginning" until "God SAID...." There really is power in words. All day today, listen to how and what your're saying to yourself and others. After a conversation with a co-worker, friend, or spouse, replay the conversation in your mind. Focus on what you said. Were they positive, uplifting words or was there a negative tone or underlying agenda you didn't even know was there? See if there are areas in the way you speak that can be improved upon and then watch what happens in your life as these word improvements are implemented, consistently over time. Get your words working for you, not against you!

"A man's [moral] self shall be filled with the fruit of his mouth; and with the consequence of his words he must be satisfied [whether good or evil]" - Proverbs 18:20 AMP

In the beginning...

op·ti·mism

noun \ˈäp-tə-ˌmi-zəm\

Definition of OPTIMISM

1: a doctrine that this world is the best possible world

2: an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome

 

Given these definitions from Merriam-Webster, then I, as an optimist, am someone who practices "a doctrine that this world is the best possible world" or one who has "an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome."

 

I have read hundreds of personal development books over the last few years. I've studied the most successful and influential men and women in history. I am convinced that to truly be successful AND enjoy that success, you must practice optimism. Attitude is the key and a lot has been made of choosing a "positive mental attitude" but I believe it goes deeper than that. Our attitude, which can be and usually is affected by so many outside factors, first and foremost is affected by the doctrines and inclinations with which we approach the world. That is why I am an optimist.

 

Sometimes, quite often, in fact, I have been accused of being an "eternal optimist." As far as I'm concerned, that is the only type of optimist you can be. If not "eternal" then you are only "temporary." What a sad existence if you can't consistently, repeatedly approach the world in an optimistic way.

 

It is with this approach that I'll be posting to this blog. Recording things I hear, read, and real-life encounters I experience and what my obersavations of these are. I study people like personal development experts Napolean Hill, Earl Nightingale, Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins, John C. Maxwell, and Darren Hardy. I listen to and read from my favorite pastors like Norman Vincent Peale, Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Mac Hammond, Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Joseph Prince, and Joyce Meyer. The Bible is the foundation from which I consider all things.

 

I'm really looking forward to this exercise and hope to post every few days. I promise the posts won't be lengthy but will include items maybe you've never heard before or, worst-case, you've heard a long time ago but hearing again awakens something anew within you.

 

Thanks for reading my "Observations of an Optimist" and I look forward to our interactions!