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The other day I shared some of my favorite words in my leadership course. These are words that resonate with me. When I say or read these words, I often stop and think about what they mean to me. My list was:
A sage is a person who is wise and they are wise because they learn from experiences. Wise people reflect on what happens and learn from it. Sages are interested in others and often ask questions rather than give answers.
I often emphasize curiosity rather than judgment. If we are curious, then we are less likely to be judgmental. Plus it makes life so much more interesting. And integrity cannot be compromised. Even when we make mistakes, we can maintain our integrity.
No one arrives. We are all becoming–evolving.
The question is: What are we becoming? To what are we evolving?
I actually own the domain: Becomingasage.com (I love that thought.)
I am sure I could add to this list, but I would like to hear from you.
What are your favorite words?
Why?
How do your favorite words influence your life?
My favorite words:
faith: I truly believe that anything can happen as long as you believe. My faith is the core of who I am as a person, helps me get through challenges in life, and is something that I know is always there.
miracle: This word is very special to my family. We have been lucky enough to experience multiple miracles in our lives. Miracles can’t happen unless you believe!
strength: Personally, I have learned new meanings to this word this past year. “Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.” When I was faced with health issues, giving up to me was not an option. Through those trials and triumphs I have become a stronger person.
laugh: This is one of my favorite things to do. When I think about some of the happiest times in my life, I am smiling and laughing. Also, laughing is contagious. Make someone else smile and see what happens
blessed: This is one of my favorite words because it describes my life. I am and have been truly blessed in my 22.5 years of life. I am so thankful for all the wonderful people in my life, the experiences I have had, and my future that awaits. I am truly blessed!
Love the list of your favorite words. I’d add inspiration on there – when I’m inspired about something or someone the energy that generates and the ideas that are sparked are truly amazing. Great blog Jann.
I probably would have picked curiosity and integrity without looking at your list. It is a lot easier to enjoy life when you are curious and engaged than when you are jaded and walled off from the world. I try to live with integrity because it’s just easier in the long run. You don’t have to try to remember what you said or how you behaved with a certain person when you live by the same standards all the time.
I like your list of words, and I would have to say that becoming is a word that is essential in my vocabulary. I think that everyone needs to be continually trying to become something better by learning and always being curious.
I would also say blessed is one of my favorite words (in agreement with Ashley). I even find trials a blessing because they push me to be stronger. Remembering the blessings in my life everyday is significant as well as being grateful for them and seeing the wonderful things in my life–even if it is just a “small win” or just simple stuff. Seeing the blessing in everything makes life more positive and weeds out the negativity in one’s life.
My five favorite words are very simple. Charisma, Perseverance, Loyal, Intelligent, and Caring. I try to make each of these words fit into my life in some way everyday. Having charisma (and developing it) is a very important thing for anyone to have who is put into a leadership role. Perseverance is something that keeps us moving forward in the face of adversity and drives us to succeed beyond odds. Loyal is a simple word but very strong in meaning; loyalty is often taken far too much for granted, whether it is friendship or company loyalty. Intelligent may simply mean to think out all actions rationally, or to just use the full potential of your brain at all times. Caring is the word that is most important here. Over the spread of humanity it is dished out far too little most of the time. If everyone cared for one another just a little more then the world would dramatically change for the better.
There are two words that I try and always remember share in my daily life. The first one is courage. Having the power to go through a life changing experience doesn’t just show guts, rather being courageous is willing to tackle anything. Having the power and strength to overcome anything you set your mind to is my definition of a courageous act. My 2nd word is caring. You can tell a lot about a person from a first impression, but how do they care about others, or the actions they show when others are turned away. Always show the love and support you wish to be shown, because you never know, when you might be the one in dire need of a friend when you need one the most.
My favorite words:
Character- I believe great leaders have great character and that is what separates them from the rest.
Passion/Love- When you are truly passionate about something you are willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish it. As long as you apply character.
Inspire- I believe inspiration is what comes from adding character and passion together. When you are passionate about something and you have character doing it, others will see that and be inspired.
Happy/Happiness: Life is to short to be anything but happy. Have fun, joke around, and live it up.
I like the word integrity because it has real life consequences.
One word I don’t really care for…faith.
Wow. Such a good list of words. There have also been many good lists by others on here. A couple of words I would add to your list are “motivation” and “charisma.” Without motivation it is really hard to achieve or make use out of most words on your list. Charisma also provides a new use for all the words you like. More people are willing to listen and follow you.
My favorite words are faith, light, and love. These words are my favorite due to their religious connotation and positive meaning. Faith is significant to me because I aim to center my life on my faith in God. Light is important because I want to be a “light to the world” which means being a positive example and displaying optimism. Lastly, love is meaningful because I believe I am called to love and be a friend to all people.
My favorite words are family, trust, love, passion, faith, honesty, and courage. I like these words because we are always talking about what makes you as a person, these words build up my character and influence me everyday.
My favorite words would have to be trust, love, commitment, belief, and faith. Our high school football team’s motto were these words, but most people chose to live by these words as well. I also like to live by the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. I think these words are truly powerful and all people should try to encompass these in their lives.
The words everyone has posted are really good. I think Alyssa’s inclusion of the fruit of the Spirit is great: love, joy, peace, and gentleness are the ones I think of most often, and I’ve been thinking about faithfulness more; it has come up several times during Lent.
I also would add the word dialogue. Two-way (or more) conversation is essential to leadership and just life. Too often we try to have the last word or see the issue at hand in black-and-white when it is really much more complicated. This is closely related to another word we talk about often–Listen!
All the words mentioned above are very good. As it comes to me I think curiosity is very powerful. I think every successful, influential, powerful person has curiosity in themselves. If you live day by day with out being curious then how are you ever going to develop and learn. And a person can not function without learning.
This blog post is interesting to me. This has made me think about how infulential words can be. It is amazing how everyone has a different set of words that they find special to them. I think it is important to keep one’s set of favorite words in mind because they can explain a lot about a person.
I very much enjoyed not only the film, Let Me Be Frank, but also the talk he gave to our class. I wrote about this in our journals, and I still believe it; Frank was the best speaker I have heard thus far in person. So many times we sit in a auditorium, and listen to a person recite a speech they have practiced and polished to the point it loses its impact.
Frank was very “real” and as a result I hung on every word he said. Through his struggles and accomplishments, I really felt inspired to better by own life. So many success stories now seem to be had by these perfect people and it leaves little hope for us regular people. Frank was so raw and gritty that you really felt he was a real person as well.
Honesty – I have had a lot of dishonesty in my life which is why this is on the top. Honestly is very important to me.
Family – Without family who are we and what would we become. I love my family and they are a great support group.
Integrity – People need to do what they say and be a good person overall. I can not stand people who don’t own up to what they do.
May two favorite words in the English language defining leadership are motivation and servant.
Motivation – I like this word because everyone needs it. Self-motivation and external motivation are both important in succeeding in life. Digging deep and finding that within us is an awesome challenge we face and one that not a lot of people try to take on.
Servant – Servant is similar to follower. Although I am in a leadership class, it is important to know our roles. We are all essentially servant at some point in our lives. At this stage we learn from the people we serve. This is the time to refine our leadership skills.
my favorite words are probably: love, family, faith, miracle, fun,humor, courage. These words almost always have a positive meaning and they are in my opinion, words that you must have as part of you in order to have a good and successful life.
I really like your list of words. Believe is definitely one of the words on my list. If you have believe in yourself, an organization, your friends and your family. Another word that is on my list is relax. I find myself always on the go, not taking the time to sit and think about all that is going on around me.
The first word that comes to mind for me is faith. I think you need faith in a a higher power, faith in yourself, faith in others, and faith in what your working towards. Oftentimes people don’t have faith in the system or faith in themselves. I believe you need to have that internal motivation of faith to really get you going and on fire in whatever you’re doing!
My list of favorite words is literally endless. I could give you a list in both German and English. But what this list of works mean to me and why they are my favorite would turn into a story book. I usually enjoy using words that are discriptive, fun, and entertaining. I live my life each and everyday by my list of words, and if you truly know me as a person then you should have a slight idea as to what some of these words may be. =]