Language

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."  My mom said this as probably every other parent on the planet.  I don't believe this anymore.  I think words can leave a big impression, especially if the person saying them is ourselves. 

Here is a little excerpt from Spiritual Economics on page 36 in my book, "Failure or lack in your life is simply the result of continuously 'minus-ing' yourself.  Conversely, success and prosperity are the results of constantly 'plus-ing' yourself.

When I started paying attention to this about 6 weeks ago, I found myself "minus-ing" myself all the time.  Sometimes it was just in my tone of voice.  I heard a lot of "only's" coming out of my mouth.  I only did that or I only did this and I should have blah, blah, blah.  I noticed these often.

The hardest question for me to answer was how is my business doing.  And it always seemed to me that in that moment all I could focus on was the no sales I was having.  But a coach friend, Sue Vittner, helped me to look at the situation differently.  She told me to step back and look at all the successes that I had achieved and my knowledge that I would have sales in the future.  I have had sales in the past and all of the innovative work that I have been doing.  It wasn't a lie to say that my business was terrific.  Of course, since I'm prepared for that question, people have stopped asking it.  But I can authentically answer that my business is terrific. 

But language "minus-ing" can be pretty subtle, too.  Yesterday, when I was writing on my blog about our grocery store budget, at first, I used the word careful to describe how we had to be with the budget.  But I changed it to mindful.  To me, careful is attached to danger.  Mindful is paying close attention.  I just "plussed" myself.

I would love to hear how you "plus" yourself with language.