Motivation and Your Emotional Vocabulary

By Jonathan Wells

There are a variety of motivators that can stimulate us to take action in our life. In personal development we want to stay motivated, so we can intentionally and consistently, take action and produce results.

Emotions are the most powerful of all the forces that move us to action. Learning to harness and direct our emotional power is a very effective way to stay motivated and focused.

Using what I like to call your 'emotional vocabulary,' is one of the simplest ways you can tap into your emotional power source. Unlike your functional vocabulary, your emotional vocabulary is made up of the words you use to communicate your feelings, both internally and externally.

This powerful part of our vocabulary consists of word labels that represent our full spectrum of emotions. We have word labels for positive feelings and negative feelings. We also have word labels to describe emotions of varying degree, from very subtle to extremely intense.

Why does any of this matter?

Because we use the words in our emotional vocabulary to represent how we feel about our experiences in life. Changing those words can actually alter the way we view those experiences. If we have a wonderful experience that makes us feeling extremely happy, but misrepresent it by saying, "that was pleasant," then we have effectively minimize the degree of happiness associated with that experience.

On the other hand, if we have an experience that is only "mildly enjoyable," but we label it as "absolutely wonderful," we will have supercharged that experience with a greater degree of positive emotional energy. Editing the word labels we use to represent our experiences, allows us to control the emotional power of those experiences.

Here's how we make practical application of this knowledge. By consciously choosing the right word labels, we can systematically amplify the intensity of our positive experiences, and minimize the impact of our negative experiences.

Many people unintentionally magnified their negative experiences, and at the same time, minimize their positive ones. This can create a depressing view of life.

We all have positive and negative experiences. How we view those experiences, and the impact they have on us, will be determined by the way we interpret them. It should be one of our personal goals to stay in a resourceful frame of mind, as much of the time as possible. Negativity tends to rob us of our resourcefulness. In contrast, a positive mindset always increases our resourcefulness. When we feel resourceful, we feel motivated to take action. When we are running low on resources, we generally lack motivation.

How can we use words to motivate ourselves to take action? By using carefully chosen word labels to describe our experiences in a way that empowers us with greater resources.

How resourceful do you feel when you are angry? What happens to your feelings, and your level of resourcefulness, if you change the label from angry to slightly annoyed? Not only will you feel less angry, but you will also feel more resourceful. You can take it to the next level if you represent that experience by saying to yourself, "I was some what annoyed, but it passed quickly."

Simply shifting the word labels we use to describe our feelings can completely change our thinking patterns. The degree of pain or pleasure we feel from any given situation can mean the difference between either taking action, or feeling paralyzed.

By choosing to use empowering word labels instead of limiting ones, we can completely change how we perceive any experience in our life. This will enable us to maintain a more resourceful frame of mind, which will help us stay motivated.

My name is Jonathan Wells and I believe that the simplest way to a life of personal success and prosperity is to learn what the core principles of success are and how to apply them in your life. I call these key principles Advanced Life Skills. To learn practical steps that you can begin taking immediately to reach your goals and improve the quality of your life, please visit my blog at http://AdvancedLifeSkills.com/blog

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