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- The words you use matter
Remember the saying “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”? That was the biggest lie of childhood, was it not?! At various times in my childhood I was teased and that teasing caused me much more pain than a simple stick or stone would have. We all know words matter. What we say to our spouse, friends, coworkers, neighbors, children, it ALL matters.
Hopefully, none of us would say to a child “you are so stupid! You will never do anything important with your life! You are ugly! You are fat! You are weak! You are a loser! You’re always wrong! You suck at that!” No! No decent person would ever say any of these things to a child. Even if you were so angry you could scream – you just would not say that to a child. Period.
But what about when you are talking to yourself? What about when you are looking in the mirror? What about when you’ve had a bad “mom moment” and yelled at your daughter? Or when you got lost again? Or you stepped on the scale and the numbers went the opposite way than what you were hoping. What are you saying to you?
I follow a speaker, author and entrepreneur named Jeffery Combs and I love his teachings. One thing that he says frequently is “words don’t return void.” In other words, our words matter. And I’d even say that the words that you are saying to yourself are the most important words of all.
Are you being kind to yourself? Or are you tearing yourself down? Because it truly matters. According to Napoleon Hill, your subconscious cannot tell the difference between the truth and a lie. If you are constantly telling yourself you are stupid, you will believe you are stupid, and you will limit your life.
For me, the thing that I told myself daily was “I can’t do that (whatever that may be), I’m too shy.” I was limiting my life on almost a daily basis and was missing out on so much. Anytime that I noticed I was saying that to myself I replaced it with “I used to be too shy for that but I’m coming out of my shell.” It took baby steps and a long time but I truly do not think of myself as shy anymore. I let go of that limiting belief and it is changing my life.
Today I challenge you to pay attention to the words that you say to you. I challenge you to pick just one limiting belief that you are telling yourself and stop it! Just one. Even if you only catch it 10% of the time, you will see improvement. And over time, by eliminating just one negative thought. you will see an incredible change in your confidence, your belief in yourself and your life. Go for it! I challenge you.
