Redefining Words

As a Personal Development Life Coach, one of the most confusing things I find students/clients come up against is 'definitions'. It's important to understand that your definition of a word is not the same as everyone else's. The dictionary tells us one thing, and we add our own dashes of life experience to the meaning to give it more clarity. What that does though is muddy the waters. And they've gotten pretty sludgy if you ask me.

How we define words morphs through time. It's progress. It's evolution. We use words in different ways, like 'snap,' and 'sweet'. We can't assume we are the only things evolving. How we communicate does also. The words we use today are 'bigger' then they were in the past... juicier. And personally, I LOVE IT. I feel we get way too caught up in word definitions and should redefine them to work in our favor. I'd like to put a positive twist onto some of the words society uses to demoralize and criticize.

The word BRAG is one example of a word I do not feel works for us any longer. In my "What's Your VIBE?" Explorashops, my students have a wonderful time giving new meaning to this word. To Brag has been looked upon as a bad thing, more as a put down and as doing something hurtful. One definition of brag is to talk with excessive pride about an achievement or possession. What's so bad about that? How is that any different from a job interview? If everyone twists this word with points of view that it is about showing off and putting down others, how are we supposed to share our accomplishments? "Oh, s/he's just bragging!" How can you sell your skills, abilities and talents during a job interview if you've been taught that bragging is a bad thing? Talking about yourself just feels wrong. No wonder so many of us live like turtles hiding in our shells. And who says when you are bragging you are putting others down? What if your intention is just to share your great news because you are excited about something wonderful taking place in your life? Can you help it if someone else is jealous because of your success? Do you see what I mean?

I like to play with words. Redefine them in fun ways that create joy in my life and the lives of others. Give them more depth. Create new ones for people to play with. Here is one... AMAZINGNESS. Good one huh? So, amaze is defined as "to fill somebody with wonder or astonishment". Perfect right? Gotta luv it. Here is how I play with this word.
A.MAZE.ING.NESS
I often wondered how the word maze slipped into something so wonderful. A maze can be fun, but it can also be frustrating and a challenge. And yes, that can be wonderful can't it? Ok, I'm going to get weird on you here, so just play with me. One of my sayings is "My life is amazing", which is what got me to looking at this word in the first place. If my life is like a maze, filled with challenges and things to figure out so I stay on the right path, how could that be better? What if instead of walking through a maze trying to figure a way out, or which is the right direction, the maze did more? What if just when I thought I was stuck, the maze presented me with a gem... an opening to something/somewhere I never thought was possible? Something that a moment ago seemed hidden from view? An opening I just couldn't see? An illusion? Oooh! Are you getting this? How fun would that be?
ING means more of something to me. More happening. See-Seeing. Talk-Talking. Love-Loving. Pretend-Pretending. So what if your maze of life was more than you thought it was? More possibilities you can't see that are available to you? You just have to stop and open your eyes to see them. Have a different point of view. A different perspective.
And NESS is like infiniteness. More possibilities. More than I ever imagined.

How does "My life is amazingness" sound to you now? More open? More expansive? More fun?

I'm not saying we want to screw up the whole English language. Although we've already done a good job of that without my help. What I'm getting at is that you don't have to take someone else's point of view or definition of anything as yours. Just because a book says one thing doesn't mean it can't be twisted and bent in your favor. And because so many of us add our touch of life experience and emotion to words, it would do us good to not take things so personally. Someone else's jealousy is not yours. Someone else's pain is not yours. If you say something with the intention of hurting someone, how is that a benefit to you? But if you say something and someone takes it differently than you intended due to their smattering of life experience on a word, how is that a judgement on you? I'm just saying!

Oh, the I WILL SURVIVE Healing the Scars of Abuse 3-Day Marathon starts this Thursday, at 4pmEDT. It is our plan to facilitate a lot of people during each show, and have scheduled 3 hours with each speaker providing us lots of time to do so. So please REGISTER FREE and join us. If you have ever let abuse of any kind take the drivers seat in your life, this Marathon is for you. AND, for only $24.99 you can be on the show and receive 15 minutes with one of our speakers. How fantastic is that? Tons less then what you would pay normally, so why not take advantage of that.

Ok, later guys. Lots more TeleSummits on the horizon. Animals, relationships, sexuality, business and more!

Catherine