How to use words to motivate us to accomplish goals

A few weeks back I spoke to an audience about how one can use words to to create change, accomplish goals and essentially proceed on the path of success. Since the speech was a hit, , I thought I should share it with my Internet audience. Here it is
“Genius is only the power of making continuous efforts,
A little more effort and what seemed like hopeless failure may turn into glorious success
There is no failure except in no longer trying; there is no defeat except from within
No really insurmountable barrier, save your own inherent weakness of purpose.”

These words were engraved on a brass plate on my father’s desk. And every morning, he would pick up this plate and a jar of polish and would polish the plate. He did this every morning before he went to work from as far back as I can remember. This was his way of reminding himself that even though he wasn’t, according to him, the smartest person he knew; he could still accomplish any hard task. Those words on the brass plate probably enabled him to pursue a PhD program in economics at the age of 39!

What is even more incredible about this achievement is that he was a literature student. An English Major! After college he decided he wanted to be an economist! So he started out by reading a lot about economics and getting a Masters degree in economics from India. But his life long dream was to study at London School of Economics. After multiple attempts, finally at the age of 39 they accepted him and he finished his doctoral studies in 3.5 years. I too stood to gain from his perseverance because I got to spend a few years in London growing up.

I brought up this story because, today, I want to talk about “words”. I want to talk about how words can be used to create the world around us that we desire. The objective of this talk is to talk about an incredible tool that is at our disposal.

As we already know words can be used to motivate us to accomplish a goal. Words can comfort us in times of distress. Some say writing is like therapy. A catharsis! Only cheaper than seeing a therapist. But above all, I found out that words can also help us create a new world!

Let me share a personal story. A few years ago, maybe 10, I picked up a book by Steven Covey called the 7 habits of highly effective people. Most of you would have heard about the book if not read it. In the book he talks about writing a personal mission statement. A personal mission statement is kind of like the mission statements of companies, only this is about you. Like how a company defines its goals you define your purpose. So I wrote mine. And mine read as follows.

“To experience and learn from as many different situations as possible”. It is very succinct. Now looking back at the past few years, I realize why I constantly yearn for change. As I had told you in my previous talk I yearn for different experiences all the time. It of course has its pros and cons.

But my point is that by writing down a sequence of words and by fully internalizing those words and believing in them I ended up creating a world where I seek out new experiences.

So by writing certain words down and by constantly reminding ourselves of those words we end up creating a world described by those words. There probably is a logical justification for why this happens. I believe it is the following.

When we constantly remind ourselves of certain words, they become part of our thoughts. It’s fairly well documented that our thoughts in turn lead into actions. And through these actions we create the world we wrote down.

This is the tool I wanted to talk about. We all have the ability to create the world we want, and what better time to talk about it as we start a new year. Many make New Year resolutions, but how many keep them? I believe the reason why we can’t keep them is because we can’t believe in them.

So why don’t your try out an experiment?

Why not write down your goals on a piece of paper?

Why don’t you try and constantly look at them and internalize them ?

And then act in accordance to what you wrote down! Then, let life flesh out those words and create a world where those words are the reality!

Through that process, I believe that you too can find the power in words and help create a better world for you!