The following is from An Enemy Called Average by John Mason.  What we say is important. Our vocabulary should be filled with words of hope and dreams. Be known as someone who speaks positively.

Recently I saw a sign under a mounted large mouth bass. It read, “If I had kept my mouth shut I wouldn’t be here.” How true! Don’t jump into trouble mouth first.

Let me pose this question for you: Starting today what would happen if you changed what you said about your biggest problem, your biggest opportunity?

I don’t know if you’ve had this conversation or not, but last month I turned to my wife, Linda, while we were sitting together in our family room and said, “Just so you know, I never want to live in a vegetative state dependent on some machine. If that ever happens, just pull the plug.”

She immediately got up, walked over and unplugged the TV.

“Our words create our worlds,” says Dean Sikes. Your words have the power to start fires or quench passion.

Don’t be like the man who joined a monastery in which the monks were allowed to speak only two words every seven years. After the first seven years had passed, the new initiate met with the abbot, who asked him, “Well, what are your two words?”

“Food’s bad,” replied the man, who then went back to his silence.

Seven years later the clergyman asked, “What are your two words now?”

“Bed’s hard,” the man responded.

Seven years later – twenty-one years after his initial entry into the monastery – the man met with the abbot for the third and final time. “And what are your two words this time?” the abbot asked.

“I quit.”

“Well, I’m not surprised,” the cleric answered disgustedly. “All you’ve done since you got here is complain!”

Don’t be like that man; don’t be known as a person whose only words are negative. If you’re a member of the “negative grapevine,” resign.

Contrary to what you may have heard, talk is not cheap. Talk is powerful!

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Reprinted by permission of Simple Truths (c) 2011. In order to protect the rights of the copyright holder, no portion of this publication may be reproduced without prior written consent. All rights reserved.