From The Heart : The Power of the Words You Speak

What do your words say about you?

Our lovely blog reader Ivette K. Caballero has contributed to our ‘From The Heart’ feature – a weekly Sunday spot on the blog where we hand the blog back over to our readers to write about all matters of love and life.

Ivette K. Caballero an Entrepreneurial Marketing Communications Consultant with a passion for writing about personal and professional development, leadership, management, encouragement, and life overall. You can also find Ivette K. Caballero HERE.

Words are powerful, so powerful that they can make or brake relationships in business and in life. You can use words to encourage or hurt a person. The Bible says, “The tongue can speak words that bring life or death. Those who love to talk must be ready to accept what it brings.” Proverbs 18:21 (ERV)

People are known for being simple or complex, polite or rude, and caring or careless with their words. Certainly, there’s diversity of attitudes and behaviors in this world comprised of over 7 billion people.

This topic of words reminds of a conversation that I had with one of my dearest mentors a few years ago. She said to me, “Ivette, image if everyone were like me; the world would be chaotic, one of me is enough.” She admitted that she struggled with a control issue for years. The truth is that she was not alone in that boat.

As part of the human survival mechanism, people have a tendency to control others –to an extreme or to a minimum– all the time or hardly ever. It’s been said that people who can’t control themselves control those around them. Therefore, controlling the tongue is a tremendous challenge for them.

Lack of self-control triggers defensiveness, impulsiveness, and carelessness in people. As a consequence, they say insensible words that offend, disrespect, and demoralize others. This happens at home, at work, and everywhere.

It’s scientifically proven that’s easier to think and speak negatively than positively. This doesn’t imply that this pattern must be nurtured. You can change the way you think and the way you speak if you want to.

There’s power in words, people hear them and feel them. Similar to actions, when you do something out of obligation, you frown and don’t smile; those are physical expressions that can be seen. With words, you feel the sincerity or the hypocrisy in the person who speaks them to you.

No one is perfect. However, we must strive to be better citizens in this world. One way we can do that is to practice more of “thinking before speaking and listening before answering.” Let your conscience and your heart be your guide.

Here is a great collection of quotes about the power of words.

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” John F. Kennedy
“People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.” John C. Maxwell
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” Benjamin Franklin
“Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.” Napoleon Hill
“Good words are worth much, and cost little.” George Herbert
“Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.” Buddha
“You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life.” Zig Ziglar
“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.” Maya Angelou
“In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.” Plutarch
“Anybody who has something sensible or worthwhile to say should be able to say it calmly and soberly, relying on the words themselves to convey his meaning, without resorting to yelling.” Richard Dawkins
“Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.” William Penn
“Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.” Winston Churchill
“He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.” Confucius
“Genuine good taste consists in saying much in few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having order and arrangement in what we say, and in speaking with composure.” Francois Fenelon
“An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
“The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.” George Eliot
“Words are not trivial. They matter because they raise consciousness.” Richard Dawkins
“Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.” Jim Rohn
“Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The words of truth are simple.” Aeschylus
“Never separate the life you live from the words you speak.” Paul Wellstone
“Value your words. Each one may be the last.” Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
“Words, which are the dress of thoughts, deserve surely more care than clothes, which are only the dress of the person.” Philip Stanhope