Through the power of our words we can give energy or take it away. On a beautiful sunny day, and after an hour's journey in the car singing to my latest CD I arrived at the office of a client and approached 2 different employees with my usual smile and cheery greeting. 'Good morning, what a beautiful sunny day today. How are you?' The responses I got?:
'Could be worse'
'Great thanks, how about you?'
Research suggests that we have up to 50,000 thoughts a day processed through ongoing 'self-talk'; the average child under 6 is told 'no don't' many times each day; if asked to describe ourselves in detail, the average person will often use up to 8 times more negative adjectives than positive ones. No wonder it is hard to think and talk positively! The good news is that we can choose to take a positive stance if we so wish. Here are a few examples to get us thinking about how we can give energy or take it away with the words we use - which do you choose?:
What we say to ourselves
+ve or -ve?
I need more energy or I'm tired
I must remember or I mustn't forget
I'll find out or I don't know
What we say when talking with others
+ve or -ve?
Feel free to contact me or Don't hesitate to contact me
Have you considered ? or Why didn't you ?
'Could be worse'
'Great thanks, how about you?'
Research suggests that we have up to 50,000 thoughts a day processed through ongoing 'self-talk'; the average child under 6 is told 'no don't' many times each day; if asked to describe ourselves in detail, the average person will often use up to 8 times more negative adjectives than positive ones. No wonder it is hard to think and talk positively! The good news is that we can choose to take a positive stance if we so wish. Here are a few examples to get us thinking about how we can give energy or take it away with the words we use - which do you choose?:
What we say to ourselves
+ve or -ve?
I need more energy or I'm tired
I must remember or I mustn't forget
I'll find out or I don't know
What we say when talking with others
+ve or -ve?
Feel free to contact me or Don't hesitate to contact me
Have you considered ? or Why didn't you ?
Can you think of a way we can implement a better mail system to save time and effort? or
Stop duplicating effort by handling the mail twice
When those 2 people responded to me, it wasn't just the words that had an impact on my energy level, it was also the way they said it. Positive words can be undermined by the way we say them. Mehrabian's model on the effectiveness of spoken communication is often misquoted but gives food for thought:
7% of meaning is in the words that are spoken
38% of meaning is the way that the words are said (tone of voice)
55% of meaning is in body language (facial expression)
When those 2 people responded to me, it wasn't just the words that had an impact on my energy level, it was also the way they said it. Positive words can be undermined by the way we say them. Mehrabian's model on the effectiveness of spoken communication is often misquoted but gives food for thought:
7% of meaning is in the words that are spoken
38% of meaning is the way that the words are said (tone of voice)
55% of meaning is in body language (facial expression)
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