Story: Cheetah, Lion and Monkey (Source: Whatsapp University!)
A young Cheetah went hunting for the first time. He had only taken a few steps when a lion stopped him, saying, “Hey little one, where are you going?”
“I am going hunting for the first time!”, Cheetah replied, excited.
“Ha-ha-ha,” the lion laughed, “these are the days for you to play and run. You are so young; you don’t have any experience hunting. What will you hunt?”
Hearing the lion’s words, Cheetah became sad. He roamed around all day trying to hunt but was unsuccessful and returned home hungry.
The next morning, he set out again to hunt. An old Monkey saw him and asked, “Where are you going, son?”
“Grandfather Monkey, I am going hunting,” Cheetah replied.
“Very good,” the Monkey said, “due to your strength and speed, you will be a very successful hunter. But remember, always be careful and watch out for other hunters.”
Cheetah heard this and was filled with enthusiasm. In just a few moments, he hunted down a small deer.
Friends, words play a big role in our lives. Cheetah was the same, with the same passion and power, but the day he was discouraged, he failed, and the day he was encouraged, he succeeded.
“There is power in words. What you say is what you get.” – Zig Ziglar
Three Key Lessons:
The First one, we should strive to encourage others with our “words”, not discourage them. Note: this doesn’t mean we ignore their shortcomings or simply flatter them.
Change your words, change your world
Words are powerful. Spoken, written, or simply the words we use in our minds — all words have potential power. Words are extremely powerful tools that we can use to uplift our energy and improve our lives, though we’re often not conscious of the words we speak, read, and expose ourselves to.
Example: There are many scientific studies which prove the power of words like ‘Words and Water’ where positive and negative words are spoken to the same quality of water and after 24 hours, it was observed that water crystal had a different structure for the positive and negative words! Remember that our body is over 70% water. If words can affect the water, how easily can also impact us?
The Second one, we should stay away from people who always think and talk negatively and instead associate with those who have a positive outlook.
Life is random and things happen at their own pace and time. When anything favourable or unfavourable happens in our lives, we should have the responsibility to choose the appropriate words. We can use disempowering or empowering words, it is entirely our choice. Our first reactions to something aren’t always conscious, but then we can step in and reframe the meaning.
Example: let’s say you failed a test. Does this mean that you’re a failure? Or does this mean that you now know areas you need to work on to improve? That’s up to us to determine, and even if we feel like a failure initially — we can step in and transform what the failure means to us internally. We can cultivate a positive interpretation of nearly all events in our lives.
Happiness depends upon us.” ― Aristotle
The Third and most important thing is, what kind of talk do we have with ourselves? Pay attention to the words we use in self-talk because words are very powerful. Words become our thoughts, and these thoughts shape our reality. So, friends, recognize the power of words and try to use positive words as much as possible. Understand that these words can change your life.
If we constantly utter self-deprecating language in our internal dialogue, we are allowing the power of words to work against us. Telling ourselves that we are fat, weak, worthless, or stupid can sap us of our power to find positive meaning from our experiences.
Isn’t it something happening with the majority of us in our day-to-day life? Someone calls us a failure or fool or weak and we keep on chanting the same words repeatedly. The other person may have said it ONLY once (maybe jokingly/unknowingly) but how many times do we speak that word in our mind, maybe a thousand times, a million times or even more? And we start believing that we are a failure or fool or weak!
Example: Once upon a time, there was a man who wanted to understand the power of words. He was regularly following a saint to feel how words can make a difference in his life. When that person insisted too much, the saint asked that man to sit in a small cave and think about something that he loves most for the next 3 days. Since that man was a farmer and loved his buffalo too much, he started chanting I LOVE MY BUFFALO. He continued to do that for the next 5 days in that small cave without any break! After 5 days, the saint asked him to come out of the cave, the man replied I CAN NOT come out of the cave as I have LONG Horns!
If we want more control, and more energy in our lives we can start with a greater understanding of the potential power in what we say to ourselves and others.
The following are the possible actions we can take to avoid any negative use of the words
- Making word work consciously
- No self-criticism
- Stop self-deprecation
- Resist gossiping
- Boost the positive energy of words
- Surround yourself with positive and uplifting words
Excellent
Thanks Vinai for your response and kind words.