Words Are More Powerful Than Physical Actions

by Debra Arko, Featured Contributor

HAVE YOU HEARD the saying actions are more powerful than words? What if there’s more to it than that. When are words more powerful than physical actions?

The Power Of Negative Words

One of the core beliefs is that your dreams will come true if you write them down, and then take action. If it were so simple, we all would be wealthy, healthy, and wise. I wouldn’t be writing this and no one would need to read it if I did.

So why are words more important than physical action? Whose words are more important?

How Words Turn Into Our Self-Talk

 I had a blessed childhood. My parents didn’t believe in physical punishment instead they talked with me.

They used ‘words’ to impress upon me the idea of values, integrity, and consequences.

My dad a smiling thoughtful man rare to anger loved to tend his gardens and often sat looking out the window watching the comings and goings of others. He often worked two jobs to support our family. He had developed asthma and other chronic lung disease working as a steelworker.

One day, when I was about 14 I said something so disrespectful to my dad as he sat struggling to breathe his tanned face full of anger turned black as he grasped for air. Swearing he was going to spank me, he rose to get up out of his chair.

As he stood, I turned and ran out the back door. I had never seen him this angry with me. He labored along screaming how when he caught me he would give me my long over-do whipping with his hand.

Through the back screen door, he followed. Reminding what was in-store when he caught me. As I turned, to verify my lead knowing how hard breathing was for my father I saw him slowly peddling along after me, I began to smile knowing he would never catch me.

As his eyes met mine, his mouth spilt into laughter and we both knew in that moment he’d made his point. Words are more powerful than actions. My words had deeply hurt him. His action even if he could have reached me and made good on his promise to give me my first spanking at age 14 would never held as much meaning for me as the power my negative words had on both of us.

I don’t remember what I said that day, that made my dad angry only his reaction and that I could run faster than a 55 year old man with asthma; not one of my proudest moments in life.

As always we talked, it wasn’t what he said it is how he and I chose to solve the issue. In that instance I learned how powerful words could be. They cause action. They create drama or build confidence and just as quickly take it away.

Your words hold so much power. The actions they manifest can lead armies to war or people to peace. You may say, “Not me, I’m no leader!”, but you are.

Your words lead you. When you speak to another about their dreams or experiences, you begin some sort of action that takes place first in the mind and ends in the heart. This in turn is true for you when others’ speak with you.

We can all pretend we wear the ‘amour’ of Hercules yet our actions state our inner self-talk.

Words are more important than actions because they color the action taken. We hold on to things said to us even if we don’t realize it. Look at Oprah Winfrey.

She rose from a horrid experience of abuse and abandonment to be one of the wealthiest women in the world. Yet she struggles with weight. Eating is comforting, it’s self-loving. Moreover, self-nourishing all things she lost during those years.

Research shows verbal abuse and negative self-talk leads to weight gain or self-destructive patterns. This is a tough issue to overcome for everyone.

So If Words Are So Powerful How Do We Take Positive Power Actions In Our Lives?

1. The bottom line, we are all flawed. Accept this in yourself and let it make you stronger.

2. Spend a few minutes before rolling out of bed or first thing in the morning sharing a mantra with your inner-self.

Dr Roger Teal, a minister, shares in his upcoming book this one. “God loves me, I am wonderful, I am enough.”

3. Lead with your words. When you begin to speak, remember to say it as if you are saying it to someone you love. Do not meet aggression with the same.

To recap, be okay with words said to you or self-talk and recognize it’s only true if you allow it to dominate your life.

Give yourself love through words that affirm your personal power and that you are not alone.

Finally speak, as you want others to speak to you.

Actions are always successful. Whether positive or negative the results come from the inner words of your unconscious mind. To change the outcome practice positive self-talk.

Yes, words are more powerful than actions because they create what kind of actions we take in our lives, relationships, and business.