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Have you ever thought about the damage that you do yourself by the words you use? You may be surprised to see just how your life has been affected by your own words.
I have noticed that I can make myself truly exhausted by saying out loud, “Wow, I’m really tired.” So often I hear people talk themselves out of doing something good by citing all the reasons it can’t be done, instead of finding ways to make it happen. Many of us limit our potential and ourselves by saying “I can’t” instead of “I’ll try.” We talk ourselves into emotional depression by talking about our troubles instead of reciting all we have to be thankful for.
We’re frequently victims of our own words. We speak words of doom and they become self-fulfilling prophecies. My friend, I want to tell you something: the words you are saying are having a great influence on your attitude, your productivity, your motivation, your self-respect.
I was talking with someone who said she was due to have a review by her boss the next week, and he had promised her a raise, but she didn’t think she’d get it. He wouldn’t come through, she was sure.
I wanted to say to her, “Don’t even say that!” Why? Because she’s wounding herself with her own words. If she keeps saying that, she’ll believe that her boss is not going to fulfill his promise to her. Do you think that might affect her performance? Good chance. Do you think her boss might pick up on that attitude? Good chance. Her words of fear and doubt could very well trigger the results she fears. Then if she doesn’t get the raise, she’ll say, “See, I knew it.” And then there will be more negative words to feed back into her mental computer and the problem will compound itself.
Are you speaking words of doom to yourself? Words like “I can’t do it,” or “I’m really afraid,” or “I know something bad is going to happen”? Do you frequently say “I’m so tired,” or “I just don’t feel good today,” or “I’m getting a headache again”? It could be that you are doing great damage to yourself by filling your mind with your own negative, harmful words of doom.
Listen to yourself talk and stop wounding yourself with words of death.