The Power of Words

A raw military recruit learns almost immediately the harshness of a drill instrutor’s words when they step off the bus at bootcamp. The drill instructors will surround a recruit and start shouting demoralizing words and orders to break any sense of confidence the recruit might of had before he or she stepped off the bus. This form of abuse will continue for almost the entire length of bootcamp.

The purpose of the verbal onslaught is to breakdown any self confidence or self reliance of a recruit so that they cannot think for themselves. Eventually all thoughts of what to think or how to act will be given from the drill instructors. Some recruits will buckle under the pressure and cry. Some will become defiant then incur even more abuse, while some will calmly take the abuse and deal with it quietly knowing its just a head game.

I’ve experienced this first hand on both the receiving end and dishing it out as a sergeant while serving in the Army, so I have learned the power that words have.

There is a saying that, “The pen is mightier than the sword” by Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873)Is he saying that the pen is mighty or is it that the words which are written by the pen are mighty?… We all know that the words are what make the pen mighty.

According to the Urban Dictionary the quote means; a person can cause people to change their opinions(e.g., to fight a war) and on a large scale, whereas a sword can only change a peron’s opinion by force and then often only results in the person’s death. The Founding Fathers of the United States of America considered the pen to be mightier than the sword, and therefore were able to gain the freedom of America by uniting the colonists…Words do have power! They can bring together and unite a nation or divide it.

Because WORDS Are so Powerful, they can also be used as a weapon to hurt peoples feelings. Negative words can have a negative effect on people.  But they can also be used to encourage and lift peoples spirits. When we focus on using words to show our appreciation or to express to someone how great they look, the words have a positive effect.

We should constantly strive in using more positve words. Not only will they have a positive effect on the person receiving them but they will also make the person speaking them feel good too.

 Whenever there is a negative situation, such as your child receiving a less than stellar report card. Use that moment to look at the positive by acknowleging  how hard they worked and that it will pay off the next semester if they continue to work hard…Always try to Turn a Negative into a Positive!