Sundaymail Editor
Hunt for Greatness
Milton Kamwendo
The late, Mark Twain once said: “A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt.”
Words have power beyond your wildest imagination. They create and destroy. They change and move things. Words are the root of all creation. They are electrically charged with potential. A word is always packed with information, insights, emotions and instructions. When you find, use and unleash the right words, your possibilities are unlimited. When you are blind to the power of words, you are forever in darkness.
The Word Of The Year (WOTY) tradition has always been an effort to capture the spirit and experience of a year in one word. It represents a major shift in language or cultural experience in a given year. The tradition refers various assessments of the most important word or expression in a language or region during a specific year.
The German tradition, Wort des Jahres, was started in 1972 electing a word for the year 1971. Since then various organisations and dictionaries announce their Word of the Year for a variety of purposes. If you could announce your word of the year 2020, what would it be? What of this year?
The authors of the Oxford English Dictionary also have a standing tradition of releasing a word for the year. They understand the dynamism of language and they track the most important words that are gaining momentum, new uses and importance. They note that language evolves and is dynamic and new words are being created all the time and while new uses of words are emerging all the time.
In the United Kingdom (UK) the word for the year for 2010 was “Big Society”, for 2011 it was “squeezed middle” while the word of 2012 was “Omnishambles”. For 2013 the word was “Selfie” and for 2014 it was “Vape”. For 2015 the selected word was an “Emoji” as that was the year that emojis and their use became mainstream language. The word for 2016 was “Post-truth” while the word for 2017 was “Youthquake”. The word for 2018 was “Toxic” while that for 2019 was “Climate Emergency”.
Some runner-ups would be identified along the way as well. The tradition was holding up well until the challenge of 2020 came up.
For the Oxford Dictionary Team, and the world at large, 2020 was an unprecedented year. They could not settle on one word so they released a list of words that they thought were important. Some of the words were not necessarily new, but they took on new meaning and importance.
The list of words that Oxford Dictionary released to describe the year 2020 include: Covid-19, Coronavirus, Pandemic, Social Distancing, Remote Working, Remote Learning, Lockdown, Quarantine, Superspreader, Cancel Culture, Anthropause, Workcation, Staycation, Mask up, Mask-shaming, Mute and Unmute. All these words represent a shift in language and experiences.
While some words gain new meaning others fade into obscurity.
You do not have to close a year in order to choose your word or words for 2021. If you had to describe your year to date, what would your word of the year be? Yes there are many negative things that have happened in the year. However the positive and progressive also exists and is alive.
If you choose you can use a negative filter and select the words like: death, fear, overwhelmed, shaken, frustrated, confused, burial, lonely, worried, concerned and unsettled, and sick. However, you can choose to change the filter and the way to look at life and choose different words. The candidate words could be: greatness, opportunity, change, blessed, grateful, innovation, learning, thankful, reflection, perseverance, resilience, hope, and grit. When you choose your word, the word defines your attitude and view of life. What is your word?
We may be living in an unprecedented era with so much change all around and peril, but this cannot stop the greatness train from moving. Choose your words with care and choose your focus with wisdom. Glance at the realities all around you, but choose the words that will define and shape your life.
The words that you habitually use affect how you communicate with yourself and with others. Words have power to create or destroy. Words are tools of creation and instructions of consequence. Power your life through words that you choose deliberately. Nothing squanders opportunity like idle, mindless words that are just emotion-packed, but destructive. When you change your words, you change your life.
Wake up to the power of words and take control of your destiny. Wake up and pack your mind and heart with energy and enthusiasm by uttering words of power, positivity, gratitude and life.
Pack all the energy you can into your life and daily action through positive and inspiring words. You do not afford the luxury of negativity and mindless words. Lift everything around you through the words that you use. Fast from certain words and your life will be better and your mind with run better. Idle negative and irresponsible words are like spiting idle poison. Stop sabotaging your greatness through your words.
Words on which you thread your experiences and thoughts and thoughts are powerful things. The words you consistently use shape your life and determines your trajectory. How you speak determines where you belong. When you change your words it is impossible for your life to stay the same. When your life changes it is impossible also for your words to remain the same.
No more slow motion for you. No more sloppy words. No more sleepy moves. No more lethargy. No more digging our own graves with our words. You are an architect of greatness. You are on the move. Pack your words with positive power and possibilities and be fully awake and fully engaged. You do not have the luxury of self-poisoning with words that are negative, cynical, bitter, apathetic, pessimistic, scoffing, unbelieving, lazy and loose. Sharpen your thinking and tighten your words.
Words are not toys. Idle words are not little things to play with. In words you are dealing with tools of creations, mass-destruction or building.
Change your words and you charge forward your life. Life is for the living and your words are living things. They never die and never grow old. Use your words to transform your life to help others and to make a difference all around you. Escape the social conditioning into mass-negativity and fear. Choose to play a different game and to speak a different language. Choose to change your fellowship. Mute the negative and unmute possibilities. Change and create new possibilities. Open your life to new experiences by learning new words. Whatever you learn always comes with a new language and culture. Expand your horizons, challenge your limits and use new words.
Choose to be fully alive, fully engaged and use words to power your life forward. As you speak, so you create. You are not among the sleep-walking, or sleep-talking ones. Your energy feeds other people’s energy and words are the medium of transmission. Be a super-spreader of inspiration, motivation and positive energy.
Positive words are changed with positive energy and potential. Energy is attractive and people love to see energy in motion. Choose to be fully alive and awake. Replace disempowering, dispiriting and discouraging words with inspiring, bold, encouraging and creative words.
Be fully alive to the power of words and wisely participate in the “cancel culture” by un-following those that spread fear, doubt, despondency and negativity. Take massive, determined and enthusiastic action around your words. Be awake, speak life, show life, be lively and demonstrate agility and word-intelligence.
Whatever is happening around you, regardless of how bad it is, please do not show up word-asleep and in a dreamy negative word-state. Do not advertise bitterness because it will bite you. Do not preach hopelessness, because it will bury you. Do not share despondency messages because that with confuse you. Fear not and do not be dismayed. No one wants fellowship with sour people. No one want to work with scoffing and hopeless partners. The power to transform anything in your life is in your words.
Committed to your greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author, and a virtual, hybrid and in-person workshop facilitator. He is a cutting-edge strategy, team-building and organisation development facilitator and consultant. His life purpose is to inspire and promote greatness. He can be reached at: [email protected] and His website is: www.miltonkamwendo.com
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