Get your precision of languaging right. I’m no master. I’m not perfect. I’m flawed. I’m a human being. But one thing I get right is I’m very calibrated about the words I use, because like I say, the great leaders, how did they transform humanity? It was through their words. How did the great military generals get their armies to go out there on fire? It was through their words.Words can free nations, and as we know from history, words from evil leaders have destroyed humanity, caused brutality. Words are that powerful. They not only affect your interior psychology and your identity, they have a profound impact on the world around you. So I don’t call autumn, “fall.” I don’t want to say, “We’re going to have a great fall,” because I don’t want to affect and influence my subconscious to say to my team, “Hey, we’re going to have a great fall,” because they’re going to go,”Okay. Got it.” But subconsciously, that’s suggesting a fall, a failure. So I said, “We’re going to have an awesome autumn. I can’t wait to execute on our deliverables and our big five for the next three months.”
When I communicate with my children, I’m so careful because one phrase spoken to a child could set up a wound and a limiting belief that destroys their potential over the course of a lifetime. A little kid is singing and you say, “Shut up. Your voice is terrible.” That could set up a core belief and an emotional wound so that they never sing again. You say to your child in a moment of frustration and irritation, because you haven’t worked on your gracefulness within, “You’re not very smart,” or, “You can’t do that.” If you’re a teacher and you say, “You know what? You can never be an astronaut. You can never be an empire-maker. You’re not smart enough to do this.” And some teachers said that to me along my journey, “You’ll never finish university.” And just to share the reality, I not only finished university with a science degree, but I did a law degree and then a master’s of law degree. And I only share that, which is I haven’t had it easy. I’ve been put down. I have had teachers who didn’t see my potential. That’s just reality.You want to block out the noise and listen to the signal, which is, “You’re built to be a possibilitarian. You’re built to be great. You have genius within you.” So calibrate your languaging so your words to yourself are world-class, and also the words you use to your team, to your customers, to your loved ones, so credibly important. If you look at the 95% card-carrying members of the cult of mediocrity, they’re so sloppy with their languaging. “Don’t be silly. Punch yourself in the face. I hate that customer. This job is going to make me sick.” And they repeated over and over, and then they wonder why they have an illness 10 or15 years down the road…