Words

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference has never tried to fall asleep with a mosquito in the room." Christie Todd Whitman 


Hey everyone, today I wanted to debunk a myth, a cliche we've heard numerous times growing up.  The saying that "Its not what you say, but how you say it that matters"  This is only half true.  It should really be restated as "the words you use and how you delivery them matters most."

This takes me back to a sociology class I took when I was 16.  The professor gave an example of how diction, word choice can have an impactful response on people.  He lectured about how some sociologist researchers conducted a survey about school prayer.  There were two nearly identical surveys made.  With the exception of one difference, the two surveys differed by only one word. One line in the survey asked "Do you think it's OK for schools to not allow school prayer?" This generated a majority response from people that it was alright for schools to not allow school prayer.  The other survey asked "Do you think its OK for schools to forbid school prayer?" This survey, caused a backlash.  Overwhelming majority responded with a no, and strong reactions! "How dare you FORBID school prayer!" "This is an injustice?" These are the ones I can write, there was more but I'd like to keep this blog clean as I can.  

 The only change in the survey guys, was just one simple word.  From not allow to forbid.  This one little shift caused a huge impact.  This shows us that words are powerful, what we do say and how we say both matter.  The great coaches, motivational speakers are masters of using the right words.  They understand this phenomenon.  I've seen speakers motivate, impact people about finances using the words building up to a critical mass.  Speakers use, take action, peak performance, ultimate advantage, unlimited abundance of wealth!  The word list can go on and on.  Words create actions, so choose wisely.  In the english language, there's only 100,000 positive words, compared to 200,000 negative words.  This explains why we have so much depression, anger, resentment, and other negative feelings.  

In closing, i hope everyone can take away from this about choosing a great word next time they're speaking to their significant other, their colleagues, their employees, their bosses, their children.  The words you use in every interaction WILL make on some level, an impact on that other person's life and ultimately yours.  

Thanks again