I love playing with language, manipulating words, and even creating words like extra-average. Most dictionaries always have multiple definitions of words but at the end of the day, we give words meaning. When I was younger I used to rap and write poetry—that’s where my relationship to words began. Though I know and use many words thanks to the SATs, I made a commitment to be less loose with my language and become more intentional about what I say. I’ve come to realize that words have power and I want to mean what I say and be a man of my word.
So over a 30 day period, I decided to redefine the 20+ most important words to me that serve as the foundation of my life. Sometimes old language and meanings lock us into old ways of doing things. Forget Oxford. Forget Webster. I saw this as an opportunity to create language and thus new possibilities. I asked myself, what are the 30 most important words in my life and what do those words mean to me and only me?
Below you will find the results of my process which has completely shifted my life. Simply writing down my own definition of the word success for the first time changed how I move through the world. Once I became conscious of my own definition even if I can memorize it, it begins to inform my choices. All of my words below determine my choices whether I am conscious of my definitions or not so I might as well establish a relationship with them as well as begin to understand their relationships to one another.
If you choose to engage in this powerful process, I encourage you to choose the 10 most important words that are foundational to your life and define them for yourself in writing and see how you life begins to shift as a result of becoming aware of the meanings you choose to give them.
Purpose
Purpose is your ultimate reason why.
Failure
Failure is the moment we stop investing in something we believe in because of overwhelming and unwelcomed feedback.
Faith
Faith is being confident in the midst of an uncertain future.
Life
Life is a series of moments created by our relationships.
Leadership
Leadership is the act of creating more leaders.
Fear
Fear is simply information we may not want to hear or feel (but information nonetheless).
Time
Time is a space gifted to us by _________ (your spiritual source) to experience life as it is.
Comfort
Comfort is a seductive drug disguised as candy.
Enough
Enough is the point where the cost of getting one more outweighs the benefits of having one more.
Food
Food is any natural substance that energizes the mind, body, or soul.
Work
Work is the process of changing or moving an individual, organization, or thing from state (what it is) to state B (toward what it wants to be) or from point A (where it is) to point B (toward where it wants to be).
Health
Health is how we feel beyond the threshold of merely functioning.
Success
Success is the ability to:
1. be who you want to be
2. do what you want to do, and
3. have enough of what you need to continue being who you want to be and doing what you want to do
Help
Help is holding a door to an alternative path open as wide as you can for as long as you can for someone.
Trust
Trust is a currency backed by integrity (in the same way the dollar is supposed to be backed by gold).
Truth
Truth is every universal law within a defined universe.
Goal
A goal is a time-bound challenge to test our commitment and integrity.
Death
Death is the ending of any commitment, attachment, and agreement.
Money
Money is an agreed upon storer of value created in the past to facilitate easier exchange in the present.
Wealth
Wealth is a state of wellness and wellness is defined as peace of mind.
Gratitude
Gratitude is appreciation for what you already have.
Love
Love is the unconditional giving of one’s time and best energy.
Family
Family is anyone I choose to share time and presence with just because.
Wisdom
Wisdom is the ability to see what is true and name it.
Luck
Luck is favorable momentum that occurs when one moves in perfect alignment with their purpose.
Diversity
My next word to define… 😉
