I’ve always loved words. Even before I discovered the addicting game of Words with Friends on my iPhone, I’ve appreciated the power, pattern and freedom of language.  Probably from the day I first learned to speak them and certainly to the day I learned to write, words have always been of particular interest to me.  It is no accident that I chose Public Relations as my college major. The art of constructing words to appropriately convey thoughts and evoke emotions is a love that I have known ever since I can remember.

However, even in this age of technology, I still prefer the simplicity of a pen and paper since the sincerity and soulfulness of my thoughts seem somehow muted and disfigured through the lens of a keyboard. Words are powerful.  Words have meaning.  These are both statements we’ve heard over and over, but sometimes don’t spend the time to truly contemplate the effect.

In any relationship, the words you choose can have deep consequences, either in the short or long term. I like to think of relationships like a giant oak tree. If you intentionally use hurtful words with each other, it removes a little wood chip from the tree each time.  If you do this enough over long periods of time, even the tallest, strongest oak will fall.  I’ve had to learn this over the years – at times being the tree itself, and sometimes playing the role of lumberjack.

This probably still isn’t news to many of you out there working on relationships with your loved ones, but have you ever considered the relationship you build with yourself? If words have such meaning and effect, what kind of words do you use to describe yourself? Especially as athletes and runners, we can be extremely critical of ourselves and sometimes spend more time talking about the goals we missed than the ones we actually achieved.  I am again, often the lumberjack in this regard.

 The words I typically use for myself on any given day are: slow, lazy, out-of-shape, undisciplined, and a host of other unflattering adjectives. I shamefully skip morning runs to get some extra sleep, telling myself I’ll make it up after work, and then blowing that goal off later as well.  My times never seem to improve and I’m carrying an extra ten pounds than I did when I was at my athletic peak.  All these facts float through my head more often than they should and I let these words continually play in my mind like the depressing lyrics to a song that just keeps getting stuck in my head.

But words affect attitude and attitude affects performance. Thinking back to the mathematical lesson that if a=b and b=c, then a must equal c. This means that yes, words can affect performance.  Internal and out loud – they make a difference. Each day, as you wake up and start the day, especially before your morning run, I hope you will choose constructive, uplifting words to describe your soul.  Driven.  Beautiful.  Committed.  Tenacious.  Strong. 

As I said in the beginning, I love words. Writing is something that I’ve repeatedly used as a comforting tool in my life and it always helps me to have a visual representation of the dialogue in my mind. My goal this week is to create a better picture of my training efforts and allow myself to choose words that will push me forward rather than drag me down. I hope that you will join me and decide that we all have some pretty fantastic words that we can use for ourselves and each other.  Today, I’m going with Powerful.  Just like my words.