Words are powerful – Why not use them to uplift someone today ?

Words are so powerful that they affect our brain. It is amazing how words spoken by humans affect another human.

Today, I met a wonderful human being and a gentleman I knew after almost two decades. He was someone I knew during my university days, who owned an audio music shop. I used to buy audio cassettes (popular in those days before the music CD’s were invented ) from him on a regular basis. We lost touch after I started a job and moved to the United Kingdom.

Unfortunately, currently he is going through the biggest struggle in his life, with business not doing great and his family not living with him because he was in deep depression.

At the end of the conversation, we just hugged each other. I said to him that I will pray for him, for his success and that his family is back with him. He had tears in his eyes. He wished me well too.

I have tried reading self-help books and many of the motivational books. While they do have a positive influence, it is not the same as another human re-assuring those positive words.

We often ridicule people who fish for compliments. They are not doing anything wrong. They have low self-esteem. They just need few kind words in a day that makes their day, their week or even their life.

We forget one fundamental human need. While we understand that we need to eat food to survive and allow our body to function in a healthy way, how we live our life and how we treat others depend on our thoughts, our outlook to our own self, how others treat us and as a consequence how we treat others.

We cut off from people who are rude to us. This is a natural defense mechanism for humans. But we forget that people who are rude to us are the ones who need to hear few kind words the most.

Through out my corporate tenure, I have observed that people do not understand the power of words they speak.

I have met many highly qualified individuals but they did not know how to choose the appropriate words when they have a conversation.

You come across supervisors/managers critical about their staff. When in fact, a few kind words of motivation to cheer up their staff would do a world of good not only for a good working relationship but ensure that the work is completed.

In sports, a captain always encourages a player when he is not performing to their potential. It is those encouraging words and the rest is the individual’s talent that helps a player to return to form.

I have known many individuals and also many who were in leadership positions, who had a great vocabulary and very high command over the English language. But what good are their language skills if they can’t uplift someone who is down and out and inspire people to bounce back in life from all adversities.

Few kind words have lot of power.