What’s Your “Word?”

Have you ever thought about what exactly is rattling around in that brain of yours? Maybe you should…

I am currently reading “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. This is a New York times best selling memoir about a woman who “finds herself” (for lack of a better term) as she travels to Italy, India, and Indonesia.

(Interestingly, when I told a friend of mine I was reading it, he says, “but you’re a guy.” Fair enough. But there are three reasons I decided to read it: 1) If the book is good, I don’t care who the target market is. I have been known to enjoy a good Meg Cabot book from time to time. 2) She did an amazing talk at TED which is what first got me interested and 3) this friend occasionally lets his hair grow out to a point where he looks like Sweeny Todd, so what the heck do I care what he says?)

Last night I read a bit that gave me some great food for thought. In chapter 33, the author, Liz, is recounting a conversation she had with a friend about how though she loved Rome, she couldn’t think of it as “her” city.

Her friend responds, “Maybe you and Rome just have different words.”

He then goes on to explain how every city has a single word that defines it. Rome has “sex.” New York has “achieve.” Los Angeles has “succeed.” and so on. The idea is that if you could read everyone’s thoughts, most would have the same thought, and whatever that thought is, that is that city’s word.

(This immediately made me think, “what’s Philadelphia’s word?” If I had to pick one right now, it would be “underdog.” This city has an underdog mentality, and I’ve written about it before)

The conversation then turns to what Liz’s word is, and at this stage in her life she is not sure.

This led me to a second, much more relevant thought: “What’s my word?”

Put into context for you:

What’s Your Word?”

Very interesting question, and not an easy one to answer.

If we could read your thoughts, what is the thought that dominates the majority of your time? What word would you distill that down to?

Try this now. What’s your word?

If you’re like me, a lot of words jumped into your head as possibilities. For me, “laugh,” “funny,” “teach,” and “succeed” came to mind immediately. But none of them felt quite right as the thought that is in the majority of my thoughts. As I continued, some additional, less positive words came to mind, “stress,” “concern,” “fear.” Again, none of these were right at all.

Then I came upon a word that while I am not 100% sure about it feels more correct than any of the others: “approval.”

Now that sucks. I don’t want my word to be approval. I am the rebellious comedic Motivational Smart Ass! I don’t care about approval!

But your “word” isn’t about what you want. It’s about what you think about the majority of the time. I love to make people laugh, and to teach, and to write this blog, and to hang with friends, and to help people, but a lot of that comes down to liking people to approve of me (I’m a performer – does it surprise you that I like approval…?) The task for me now is to decide whether that word and those thoughts are the optimal ones to get me to where I want to go…

So to you, I once again ask, “what’s your word?”

This is a critical question. The word that dominates your thoughts will guide the majority of your actions, which will dictate the bulk of your results. Take the time now to a) consider what your current word is and b) decide whether it’s the word that serves you best.

If you don’t like your word, change it now – start thinking the thoughts you want to think about, and see the impact it has on your results.