Positive and pure language to accelerate your success
Have you ever noticed how some people seem to have everything they want? A great relationship, a successful career, a fantastic social life, and great health? So why do some people live full lives and others seem to miss out? It could be very, very simple.
Are you sitting comfortably? Let me tell you a little story…
I recently went out for coffee with my friend Caroline; she was telling me how she had just landed her dream job: she works from home three days a week; she’s had a huge raise, loves the role, and has developed great relationships with her new colleagues. We talked about it until our coffees were almost cold!
As we were getting up to leave, Caroline turned to me and blurted out, “I’m so glad we had this opportunity to talk, I feel so much better about it. I was worried something was wrong with me. I have this fantastic new job, but sometimes I feel really depressed. I can’t explain why, but now I feel much better.” I ordered two more coffees and this time we chatted more honestly: there was a pattern to this sinking feeling she was having: it was after the days she spent with her colleagues at the office. So I let him in on the same secret I’m going to share with you: the language used around us has real power over our minds, over our state, over our emotions, and over our energy.
All of Caroline’s colleagues used very negative language. For example, her manager would say things like, “We shouldn’t miss this deadline or overspend on our tight budget.” To make sense of these statements, Caroline’s unconscious mind would have to imagine that she did not meet deadlines and that she spent the budget before she could imagine not doing so. This is how our mind processes negatives.
Take this example: consider the statement “don’t think of a blue elephant”. Notice what his first thought was: I bet it was a blue elephant! To process the statement, your brain had to imagine what you didn’t want before it could imagine what you did, so its process was elephant, pink, no. Notice how the first focus is the elephant. To put this into a more useful context, how many times do you find yourself saying “don’t worry” to someone? Every time you say this, the brain’s first focus is to worry, probably not the constructive and positive outcome you were looking for!
Research by well-known psychiatrist John H Reitmann confirmed this. He once said, “It takes the average person almost twice as long to understand a sentence that uses a negative approach as it does to understand a positive sentence.” Imagine all the extra energy Caroline was using to fight all the negative messages she was receiving in just two days at the office! No wonder she felt exhausted.
Coffee turned into lunch…
Over lunch, we discussed how to use pure, positive language to ensure that the message you convey is instantly understood and, more importantly, is the message you intended to convey. A few small changes will ensure that your language has a purely positive impact on you, your results and what happens in your life by giving you the ability to choose your results. For example, if Caroline’s boss had known how important clean, positive language is to success, he would have said, “Let’s all focus on meeting our deadline of xxxx and staying within our budget of xxxx.” These simple changes would have made him a much better and more inspiring leader, and therefore much more likely that he would have a high-performing team.
This is also very important in our internal dialogue. Your inner conversations can have a big effect on your outer results and how you feel. For example, if you say to yourself “I’m tired”. What happens to your physiology? How does it make you feel? Now say to yourself “I could use more energy.” It’s the same thing, and just using different words will have a huge impact on how your brain responds. When I say things like “I could use more energy”, immediately my brain says “I know how to make more energy” and will release the chemicals, change my breathing habits and stand in a different way because I have been given more energy.
Not everyone is aware of the power of their language, so I’d like to leave you with the same advice I gave Caroline (over dessert!) to ensure that all of your communications, both internal and external, lead to success in business. your life. ..
Give your mind a positive workout…
Like all muscles, the brain develops with training! A little practice will help your unconscious mind install good habits to help get you where you want to be. To start, start noticing your language in your conversations and your internal dialogues and ask yourself:
- Is my language positive and pure?
- What am I really saying to myself?
- What am I focusing on?
Is your language leading you to success or is it holding you back? When you notice that you are using negative language, reconsider how you can best express what you are saying. Changing your focus to one of success is as simple as asking yourself the following questions:
- What would I like to do instead?
- What would I like to see happen instead?
- How would I like things to be?
Try doing this for the next 24 hours and notice the positive impact it has on your mind, your state, your emotions and your energy and then incorporate the techniques into all of your conversations and start feeling the positive results! Remember: where you are today is a reflection of the thoughts and language you used in the past, and you can change where you are tomorrow by changing those thoughts and language.
