Why do words matter?
Every day, make a tiny agreement with yourself and follow through with it. You’ll start to see yourself as a person who honours their word, even when no one’s watching. And that’s what creates self confidence.
Sam Brown
Someone who honours their word? I can pretty much guarantee that if you’re reading this you’re the kind of person who would quite willingly say ‘Don’t worry, you have my word on that’; meaning that you’d happily move hell or high water to ‘honour’ what your word means to others. You would also feel incredibly deflated and disappointed with yourself if you couldn’t follow through with that person and ultimately feel like you’ve let them down.
Isn’t it strange how we can give so much of ourselves and what our honour means to other people. Can you hand on heart say that you give yourself the same amount of respect, worth and an unwavering sense of obligation? When did it become the norm to not give yourself an equal amount of honour as you would for others?
What does your word (actually) mean to you?
One of my clients recommended “The Four Agreements - A Practical Guide To Personal Freedom’ written by Don Miguel Ruiz. I accidentally ordered the mini hard back version, literally a pocket book! However, the words, despite edited, were still very powerful. I’m all for simplicity, and sometimes less is definitely more. The premise of the book is to explore the idea of holding yourself account according to certain principles or agreements. One of which is ‘to be impeccable with your word’.
I really like the idea of having agreements with yourself.
We don’t really think in this way do we? Our words are so symbolic and loaded with meaning they literally sculpt our ideas, thoughts, feelings, reality and experience of life. We are constantly and consistently communicating to ourselves a ‘message’ with the words that we use. What message are you ‘delivering’ to yourself? Are you impeccable with your word to yourself?
How often have you replayed negative words to yourself on a loop? Would you choose to do this intentionally to someone else? I should imagine, if you were it would be with the purpose to deliberately hurt them, which then means are we choosing to hurt ourselves when this turns inside instead?
If you could make ONE agreement with yourself today to keep your word what would that be?
Write this agreement down in a notebook; over and over again until it TRULY resonates with you. Next, list five ways in which life would feel different if you honoured this agreement. We forget that by keeping even the smallest agreement with ourselves it can have what’s described as the ‘butterfly effect’. The notion that something small can have much larger effects and that the smallest occurrence can influence a much larger complex system isn’t new but we tend to forget about these things if they aren’t put into actionable practise.
Potentially the bigger the agreement is to you the larger the impact it will have. Perhaps though, try with something small to gain confidence and trust in your word first before trying something a little harder. After all, we are all very much a work in progress!
If you’re interested in working with me or would like to share any thoughts, comments or suggestions I’d love to hear from you!
Connect with me at www.laurenjanecoaching.com