the power of words

Words can change a life. The words someone says to you can change your outlook on life – they can give you the energy you need to excel, or they can rob you of any motivation you might have ever had to take even one more step. The words you say to someone else can impact your relationship with them – both for the positive or the negative.
Just a little story I recently heard: A major league baseball player had gone with an associate to do a day of prison ministry. While he was there, he was talking with his associate telling him about his path to a professional career; he told him that when he was young, tossing a baseball with his dad, his dad would always comment and say ‘son, if you keep throwing the ball like this, you’ll end up in the major leagues some day’. He continued to tell his friend ‘and today I am right where my father always told me I would be’; an inmate had overheard the conversation and interjected, gently shaking his head, telling them ‘the same thing happened to me, I’m exactly where my father told me I would be’.
The bible tells us that in the tongue lies the power of life and death (Prov. 18:21)- beware how you use it, my friend!

Moreover, words have the ability to limit your thinking, or on the flip side, to empower your thought life.
Certain concepts cannot be grasped without the word power to describe these; certain situations cannot even come to mind if one lacks the words: Whereas we might have three or four words to describe snow (powder, slush, sleet etc.), the Eskimos have maybe twenty*. They know all the different attributes certain types of snow have, and what that snow is good for (*though this might be a myth, it helps to explain the concept of thinking about concepts with the help of words. Perhaps Eskimos don’t have tons of words for the one word we use, “snow”, but rather terms that describe the different conditions. Anyways, here’s a page that claims the multiple snow words are a myth, and here’s a page with tons of Eskimo words pertaining to snow).
Also, your vocabulary helps determine your Intelligence Quotient (IQ); your command of a language will either set you apart from the masses, or make you blend in (possibly rendering you invisible). A little story to help illustrate this: When I left Germany to attend university in the USA, I had a strong command of the German language; I was well spoken, with only a slight local accent, and quite eloquent. With the cunning use of my words I could talk myself into and out of just about any situation – so much so, that I had a significant number of people approaching me and telling me I needed to become a lawyer. Once I had moved to the US, I found myself in a completely different situation. Suddenly I felt incredibly uneducated. I felt like a simpleton, ’cause I couldn’t express my thoughts in a manner I was used to. Yes, I was able to communicate in English, but my vocabulary was a very basic one. It would sometimes drive me nuts, ’cause I’d think to myself “I’m WAY more educated than that!”, but I’d have to give in to the use of simple phrases. The first line of a book I’ve begun working through reads “your boss has a bigger vocabulary than you have.” It goes on to say “that’s one good reason why he’s your boss.” Now, given, that doesn’t hold true in all situations (and this book is a little older, things have changed a bit these days), but in most corporate settings this happens to be the case. It is usually the ones with the better diction who end up getting the promotion (considered all other things being equal, that would likely be the case). A couple of scientific findings this book points out are “That if your vocabulary is limited, your chances of success are limited; That the vocabulary of the average person almost stops growing by the middle twenties”. I don’t want to ramble on, but I do want to encourage you, that if you want to get ahead, you’ll be well advised to improve your vocabulary.

A last word about books…
Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, one of the biggest promoters of reading is quoted saying “You are the same today as you’re going to be in five years except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read.” He continues “Hang around thinkers; you’ll be a better thinker. Hang around givers; you’ll be a better giver. Hang around workers; you’ll be a better worker. Hang around a bunch of thumb sucking, complaining, griping boneheads; and you will be a better thumb sucking, complaining, griping bonehead.”
Books will inspire you, give you new ideas, might provide a good laugh, could lure you into deep thought, they might even enlighten you, at least they’ll improve your language proficiency. But as the statement above explains so nicely, you will become what you associate with, so choose your books wisely (for ideas on what to read, feel free to ask me…).
Read, friend, READ FOR YOU LIFE!

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- the “little story” about the baseball player, as heard in a podcast by Zig Ziglar, “Words are important”, part of the “inspiring words of encouragement” series.
- the book quoted about vocabulary: “30 days to a more powerful vocabulary” (Dr. Wilfred Funk & Norman Lewis)
- Charlie “Tremendous” Jones quote take from article “Postcards from my son” found on “SUCCESS.com”