Before I really realized how important words are, I would say things I didn’t mean, write letters or emails or texts without paying attention to their long lasting effects or how they could hurt someone if they got into the wrong hands.
I wasn’t careful with the things I said like I should have been.
A few years ago I was talking to someone who has struggled consistently in rodeos, but he has continued to rodeo for over 20 years now.
When I saw him I asked how it was going, and he said he had won a rodeo the week before.
I replied with, “that’s so great you finally won something!”
My opinion flew right out of my mouth without any empathy towards his struggle to stick with it or his grit and resiliance to keep trying.
The small details in conversations will bring you clues as to where someone else stands on a subject… just like my opinion of the cowboy came out accidentally.
If you listen very carefully to someone, you can pick up the nuances of who they are, or what they think, things they may not be honest with themselves about.
Sometimes things come out wrong, but more often words come out exactly right.
I was talking to a friend just the other day and I asked him if he was going to reach the goal he’s talked about working towards for the last couple of years, and he replied with “I have very little doubt.”
This is a term we use as positive and yet it really means there is still doubt, even if just a little bit.
I don’t know if he genuinely realizes he is doubting himself, and I didn’t point it out to him, but he certainly didn’t say, “absolutely! It’s just a matter of time”. There is a big difference between the two statements if you listen carefully.
Sticks and stones my break my bones, but names will never hurt me…
Not true, words are everything they get inside us and eat us alive if we let them.
We need to choose them carefully and listen to them objectively.
“Words start wars and end them, create love and choke it, bring us to laughter and joy and tears. Words cause men and women to willingly risk their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Our world, as we know it, revolves on the power of words.” ― Roy Williams