Weighty Words 🏋️

I would self-identify as a quiet, introverted person. Especially when I first meet new people.

I’m quiet. I don’t say much. But I would say I think and overthink quite often.

When I finally do say something aloud, it means I’ve thought thoroughly about it and have formulated my thought cohesively into the words I am speaking aloud.

I don’t embellish. I don’t exaggerate. I try to speak as accurately about things as I can to reflect their authentic perception through my personal perspective.

I’ve learned that not everyone does that.

People speak aloud what they want, speak aloud how they think in that immediate moment, and give voice to emotions, fleeting thoughts, and impulse without fully processing for themselves what they are thinking or feeling.

But then, you check back in 3 months later and they haven’t moved forward with it. There’s no plan, there’s no progress and it sometimes feels like they didn’t really want it that bad.

For me, I feel that words have weight.

And if your thoughts, feelings, or impulses are vocalized before you fully appreciate the weight or gravity of those words, your words lose weight in my head.

Now, typically, I feel like these kinds of themes and concepts often delve into discussions of authenticity, morality, integrity and character. Being true to your word communicates you are a reliable person.

But I think the productivity perspective of it is worth considering.

Like I’ve mentioned before, when I want something done, I fully commit it to myself mentally and don’t negotiate or weasel my way out of my own promises to myself. I previously talked about it and wrote about it so ‘matter-of-fact’ly but forgot some people don’t operate that way.

The reason is because once I have internally vocalized or promised this commitment, my words have weight. I fully accept and embrace whatever commitment I’ve determined for myself.

STARTING FROM SCRATCH.

So, where do you start? How do you do that?

Start with promises to yourself. You don’t need to vocalize it to anyone else. You don’t need that judgment from others. But make a promise to yourself about something that is achievable to you. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, a huge undertaking, or anything like that.

Something small works.

• I promise to make my bed every morning after I get up.

• I promise to do 5 squats every day.

• I promise to sit in silence for 5 minutes a day.

None of these break the bank. None of these should take more than 5 minutes to do. None of these are high risk promises.

But promise one of them for yourself.

Better yet, associate them with a specific time of day or alarm so you get that cue or reminder.

And treat it like a huge promise. Because your word to yourself - your promise to yourself - is worthy and important.

As you slowly succeed consistently, recognize that your promises to yourself have value, have weight, have gravity to them.

Feel empowered by the commitment you have with yourself and the ability to make your words a fulfilled reality.

EXCEPTIONS.

Now, it is totally okay to not complete what you said you would do. You are allowed to and can change your mind, or change what will be your decided action. However, not following through with your word to yourself is the issue.

It can impact how you see, think and feel about yourself.

It can make it easier to negotiate with yourself, avoid persisting against struggle, and generate a “I can’t do it” mentality.

If you change your mind about the importance of something because you don’t want to prioritize productivity over fun on a regular basis, then the weight of your words losing meaning.

If you change your mind about the importance of something because another priority was identified which you care more about, then that’s considered progress.

I think the main thing I wanted to communicate in this post is that no one is going to audit your words, your promises, your actions for you. You have to do that for yourself and if you develop the mindset where you cannot even confidently trust yourself when you promise yourself, then you’re setting yourself up with empty promises.

Learning to hold yourself accountable, learning to have weighty words and learning how to get that weight is a skill worth exploring and definitely has productivity repercussions that extend beyond authenticity, integrity and morality.

By learning how to take advantage of those weighty words to design your life, you can make yourself accountable, value your words, and commit once you have voiced something to the universe. It lets you manifest things that you want, feel empowered to do so, and trust yourself in the process.

---

Now as always, I’m just a random dude on the internet standing on my soapbox. There’s always going to be more complications, more nuanced cases, some reason that my rant doesn’t apply to you. I know I am speaking from a privileged space, a privileged position.

I guess, I challenge you to fit this mindset onto your own situation. Even if it doesn’t, even if there isn’t a case for it, try to fit this mindset to your situation. Best case scenario, you get something out of this post and maybe you squeeze some productivity from it. Worst case scenario, you continue thinking I’m some opinionated, internet no-name and you already think that anyways.

~ See ya!