Life is a journey with ups and downs. I don't know why as a society we shun the downs. They're part of the process. What may look like a down in one moment, in retrospect can turn out to have been the thing that led to the biggest break in our career, business, or personal life. It's all about PERSPECTIVE! The point from which you're looking at the situation. This can be a point in time or just a conscious attitude position.
I had the pleasure of chatting with Coach Reed Maltbie on the Reinventing Perspectives Podcast about how something that seems so insignificant like the way we talk can either hinder us or propel us into the stratosphere. Isn't it amazing that we have the power to change our outcomes by simply adjusting how we speak?
Coach Reed Maltbie the author of The Spartan Mindset, says we should do these 2 things:
1. Mind our language, and
2. Change our language for excellence.
HOW DO WE MIND OUR LANGUAGE?
The simplest way is to start by becoming aware of the way we talk. How many times in a day are we just plain negative? Have we become professionals at sending out negative vibes to others and to ourselves?
Coach Reed Maltbie shared how he instilled being mindful of the words we use in his children.
'Every time someone said the words I can't one of the kids would immediately shout "Challenge Accepted No Takebacks".
Can't was a bad word in his household. Coach Reed explained,
Can't is a stop word. It's a fatal word. It cancels out any thought of a future. You can't visualise anything beyond the word can't.
How we talk about ourselves is formative. It creates the reality in which we exist. We live up to the expectations we create.
HOW DO WE CHANGE OUR LANGUAGE FOR EXCELLENCE?
Coach Reed phrased this moment-by-moment choice to strive for excellence as making the decision to 'watch the river of emotion flow'. Stepping out from under those feelings to not do the things we KNOW very well we need to do. In those times when we could throw ourselves a pity party, or get consumed by anger, we could also just watch those emotions flow by and focus on getting 1% better.
Where we could honestly say, I'm so tired of this. How about we say, I'm almost there, I just need to keep going.
If you ever wanted a coach to help you shift your mindset, get a copy of Coach Reed's book, The Spartan Mindset: Mastering The Language Of Excellence
And,
Listen to the podcast episode, "Winning The Entrepreneurial Race: The Power Of A Spartan Mindset For Optimum Performance with Coach Reed Maltbies."
The most important work we need to do is on ourselves.
That old saying we learnt as little kids on the playground, 'sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me', is a HUGE lie. I don't know who came up with that! If you've lived long enough, you understand the power of words.
Proverbs 18: 21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it and indulge it will eat its fruit and bear the consequences of their words."
Let's change our language for excellence!
P.S. If you enjoyed this blog post, check out our latest book, The Christian Entrepreneur's Toolkit. It's made for new entrepreneurs who want to work on their faith, mindset, and businesses.
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