The world has had many great speakers and their speeches; their words can impact nations and generations of people. Are they persons of fame? Sometimes. And sometimes they are the speech writers behind the scene. Another example is the lyricist and musician. The musician is the one that people associate with giving meaning and emotion to the words of the song.
There are a lot of people on podiums and platforms, even on cars or with megaphones delivering moving messages to gatherings, crowds, and the media of late. The common superpower of the musician, the speech deliverer, the protest leader, or the one whom incites a riot is that of moving people’s emotions and feelings with their words. Sometimes in good ways and sometimes in bad or even horrific fashion.
Herein I introduce what I will call Vocabulary Volume (VV). The higher the volume, the more that segment of vocabulary drives your emotional state to a higher intensity. I will give a few examples to illustrate VV. My purpose here is to allow you to recognize how vocabulary of others or yourself can sabotage or inspire you, manipulate you or pursuade you, move you into an action or reaction.
If we are discussing a point upon which we have different opinions, or beliefs or stronger yet convictions (go back to previous blogs on these words) then attention to VV is paramount. I can say something with low volume like “you may be mistaken” or I can turn up the volume a few notches and say something more absolute like “you are wrong” and finally for full volume and maximum intensity I can say “you are a liar”.
Now you could go back to one of your friends and talk about the situation and you might use a low VV description of the “discussion or disagreement or argument” like “he really annoyed me” or higher VV like “he made me so angry” or full VV “she really enraged me”. What you want to notice is how the different segments of vocabulary made you feel (level of emotional intensity) in the moment of the event, and how they impacted your feelings and emotional state later when you repeated the story. We could also say what meaning did you assign to the event.
Now this little illustration works just the same way with words that provide a pleasant feeling or emotional state. When I ask the simple introductory question to people “How are you?” I will get answers like “fine” or “o.k.” or “alright” or “good” or “very good” or “great” or “exceptionally well” or occasionally the high VV words like “fantastic”, “spectacular“ or my personal answer and response to the question “AWESOME!” I will frequently ask someone why they would settle for alright or good when they could be great or fantastic.
I would wager that more than a few reading this just had the intended “AHA MOMENT”. You just made the connection between words and emotions. Let me share one more “AHA MOMENT” with you. By expanding your vocabulary in assigning volume and intensity and meaning to situations, interactions or events you can regulate your response and the way it makes you feel. Remember, you do have a choice.
Stay Safe, Stay Healthy.
