Choose Your Words Carefully

Timing is everything. Just yesterday I published a post about learning from failure. Then this morning I open up today's DailyOM, an ezine I subscribe to. Here's part of the message:

The word failure puts forward a very simplistic way of thinking that allows for only two possibilities: failure or success. Few things in the universe are black and white, yet much of our language reads as if they are. The word failure signifies a paradigm in which all subtlety is lost.

When we regard something we have done, or ourselves, as a failure, we lose our ability to see the truth, which is no doubt considerably more complex. In addition, we hurt ourselves. All you have to do is speak or read the word failure and see how it makes you feel ...

When you are consciously aware of the word and its baggage, you will not fall victim to its darkness. In your own use of language, you may choose to stop using the word failure altogether. This might encourage you to articulate more clearly the truth of the situation, opening your mind to subtleties and possibilities the word failure would never have allowed.

Read the entire DailyOM message here.

-Bob