Transform Your Life with the Right Words

Hello, I'm Dr. Robert Rohm. Thank you for joining us on this podcast today. Today I want to share with you the most powerful thing that you possess that you sometimes miss or overlook. I'm going to go ahead and tell you what it is and then we're going to talk about it.

Welcome to becoming wiser with Dr. Robert A. Rome, author and world renowned public speaker as he shares stories involving his experiences and lessons learned in a good, spirited, positive and, and fun way. Here's Dr. Robert A. Rome.

The most powerful thing about you, the most powerful thing you possess, the strongest, most influential, most life altering thing that you possess are your words. Now listen carefully. I hope you are not let down by that. I hope you don't go, oh, I was hoping it'd be something really important. Nothing is more important than knowing how to talk correctly. I'm not talking about being a motivational speaker. I'm not talking about being a world famous orator. I'm talking about knowing what to say, knowing how to talk. On a previous podcast a while back, I did the six hidden components of effective communication. You might want to go back and listen to that at another time. Today we're going to dive a little bit deeper. Today we're going to be talking about the power of your words. Now here's why I know that this is powerful. People don't get it. People don't understand it. They think, okay, the most powerful thing I possess are my words. All right, that's good, that's fine. That's great. If that's what you say, I believe you. All right, let's move on. No, listen carefully to what I'm saying. I've been speaking for over seven decades. Okay? I was the master of ceremonies at my five year old kindergarten graduation. I'm now 74 years old. So that was a long time ago. I've been speaking, I've been talking, I've been training, I have done a lot of platform presentations. And when I tell people in the audience, the most powerful thing you possess are your words. Here's what I see.

Nobody writes anything down. Nobody takes anything. It's like, all right, I'm listening. No, no, I just said it. You just said what? I just said, the most powerful, most important, most life altering, most influential thing you possess are your words. And everybody's like, oh, okay, well, thanks for telling me that. I know because I have been doing this for so many years. When people listen and something happens in their mind, they'll stop and they'll write something down. Have you Ever been driving down the road or you've ever been somewhere and you think, I believe we're out of milk. I believe we're out of milk. And you get on your phone or you get a piece of paper and you write down milk, or go to your grocery list. Milk, eggs, cheese, whatever it is that you write down. Why'd you do that? Well, that was important. I didn't want to forget. I wish I could. Every day, the rest of your life, I wish I could start off by you waking up and me looking at you and saying, don't forget. The most important part of your life are your words. What you will say today. Proverbs 18:21 says, Life and death are in the power of your words. And those that love it will eat its fruit. Now, the only thing I can do is just level with you and share with you. So I'm not trying to brag. I'm not trying to be arrogant.

I have a great life. I have fantastic relationships. I love my family. I love my staff. I love my team. I'm crazy about my wife. Much of it is because I set the tone.

By the way I talk to everybody. I have learned don't be critical, don't be mean, don't be hateful, don't be sarcastic. Someone said sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, often found at the base of an empty skull. Did you see how I just shared that with you? Sarcasm, I don't find. Now, you may be the most sarcastic person in the world, and I know there's some comedians that have built their whole career around being sarcastic, and that's okay if that's what they want to do. But, boy, there are a lot of people who get their feet. Get their feelings hurt when someone's sarcastic. There are a lot of people who get their feelings hurt when someone speaks sarcastically or in a sarcastic manner to them. It's just not a good idea. Please listen to me. I wish I could grab you by the shoulders and say, shake you gently. Not harshly, but gently. And say, please be careful what you say. When my daughter Rachel was a little girl, I got her outside. We got a dandelion. You know what a little dandelion is? It's that thing that has all the little white spores on top of it. And I said, all right, Rachel, come here. I'm gonna see if. Can you blow off every one of these with one puff? You see if you can. Hard as you can. So she's a little girl, maybe five years old. She took a couple of deep breaths and she blew that dandelion, got them all off. And I said, you did it. You did it. I hugged her. She was so excited. I mean, we were in the yard blowing off the spores of a dandelion. No big deal. When she finished, I looked at her and I said, okay, go get them all. Go gather them all up. She looked at me, she said, what? I said, go pick them all up.

She said, well, I don't know where they went. I said, you don't know where they all went? She said, no, they went everywhere. I don't know where they are. I can't see them anymore. I said, rachel, do you know why God invented dandelions? To remind us that once we say something and it goes out, we can never find it. We can't ever get it back. It's gone forever. Now, as a little aside, I was telling that story one night while I was speaking, and a guy came up to me and he said, hey, Dr. Ohm, do you have a lot of dandelions in your yard? I said, yeah, I really do. He said, those spores are like seeds and. And when you blow all that off, it goes in your yard. That's why you have more dandelions in their weeds. If you'll quit blowing off all those spores and they'll quit going in your yard, you'll quit having so many dandelions. I laughed. He laughed. He was just kidding. I like having dandelions. They are a great reminder to me. Be careful what you say. Once it goes out, all the king's horses and all the king's men can't get your words back together again. Now, that requires you to do some thinking, doesn't it? That requires you to ask yourself, is what I'm saying, is it good? Is it pure? Is it peaceable? Is it important? How about this? Is it necessary? Sometimes someone does us wrong and we want to get them back. Somebody says something hateful or mean to you, well, you want to get them back and say something hateful or mean back. May I tell you something evil? For evil.

Is devil like. That's what evil people and evil words created by evil people. That's like the devil. Someone says something mean to you, well, I'm going to say something mean back. That's exactly what the devil would do. You be hateful, I'll be hateful. You be sarcastic, I'll be sarcastic. You be unkind, I'll be more unkind than you will. I'll teach you a lesson or two. Is that the way you want to live your Life. Is that the kind of person you want to be? You see, every word that comes out of your mouth comes out of your mouth because you let those words come out of your mouth. Have you ever heard the expression, boy, I need to learn to bite my tongue or I don't have to say something about everything? One day I was in a training in Atlanta and I was talking about this topic, the power of our words. And I mentioned that some personalities, primarily the D dominant and the I inspiring, they're both outgoing. So sometimes they speak before they think. They're more outgoing than they are reserved. They tend to talk more than they tend to. Wait a minute. Let me have a minute to think about that before I respond. Sometimes they react instead of being able to respond. I was talking about that. I said, these people.

Sometimes need to learn to put a guard on their tongue, put a watch over their mouth. So we were talking in the training and I said, now your S and C types are more reserved, the supportive and cautious. They tend to be a little better at holding their tongue. They tend to be a little better at biting their tongue and their words and being careful about what they say. Well, about that time, one of the S types in the room raised her hand and she said, Dr. Ohm, this is very true. However.

Sometimes I lay in bed at night and I'll relive my day in my mind and I'll think to myself, I wish I had said something. I wish I had thought to say something. Somebody said something, somebody else said something else. And I didn't say anything. I should have said something. I should have said something that would take the conversation in a new direction. It was so funny. I'll never forget. From across the room, a high D spoke up and said, ha, that's funny. You lay in bed at night and think, I wish I had thought to say something. I lay in bed at night and think, I wish I had thought not to say something. So therefore you see what I'm talking about. Sometimes we're quick to speak. Isn't it interesting? We have two ears and one mouth. Does that give you any object lesson? We probably should listen twice as much as we talk. I am a professional talker, so I understand that what I'm saying to you, I have had to painfully learn, be careful what you say. It's okay to talk. I'm not telling you to, you know, fold up and roll over in the corner and be quiet and never speak the rest of your life. I speak a lot, every day. Here's what I've trained myself to do. Don't say anything unkind. Don't talk about other people. I never heard my father talk hateful, mean or nasty or run another person down. I never remember him teaching me. Don't talk about other people. He didn't have to. He lived it. I never remember him to any time ever talking badly. Oh, sure he talked about other people, but it was always in things they had done that were interesting or things he learned from them or things that were useful or helpful. I just don't remember him being a bitter, mean, hateful person. I'm so glad for that. You see, you are going to learn in life what kind of person you want to be by the words you speak. You choose. Words do not accidentally come out of your mouth. A person who uses curse words said those because that's what they wanted to say. A person who uses bitter, hateful, mean, nasty, sarcastic words said that because that's what they wanted to say. And a person who uses good, pure, positive, helpful, encouraging, edifying, uplifting words say those because that's what they want to say. I had the privilege of working with Zig Ziglar for several years. Zig's one of my mentors, one of my heroes, and of course one of my friends. Never heard Zig say anything mean or hateful or nasty. Never heard him use the four letter word from stage. Sometimes I am shocked by what I hear from motivational speakers. The words that they use when they're talking. Listen. It takes a strong, powerful person to control their speech. I don't know where you are on this journey, but listen to me. Anybody can use vulgar words. Anybody can use four letter words. Anybody can curse up one storm and down the other if they want to. To me, it takes a stronger person to not do that. It takes a stronger person to learn how to say thank you. I really appreciate that. Wow, that's a beautiful shirt you have on today. Those are such nice looking shoes. Thanks for coming to the meeting. I have a friend named Ron Ball. Ron is a motivational speaker. I've listened to Ron many, many times. I've never heard anybody who is more complimentary. Thank you all for coming today. I know you're busy. I realize everyone here has things they need to do. I want you to know I have planned something for you today that I think would be good and helpful in your life. But I want you to know I care about you and I want you to know I believe in you and I thank you for being here. Thanks my guest. Thank you, Billy. Thank You, Peggy, for having me come speak. I count it an honor. I know you have trusted me to stand up and speak to your people. And today I'm going to say things that I believe will help them in their personal and professional life. Did you hear what I just did? For about a minute, I just emulated or copied my friend Ron Ball. I learned a lot. I hope you've learned a few things. Please feel to emulate me. Here's what I want to say to you. I want you to be just like me as long as I am a good person who is encouraging others and helping others and not doing things that are hurtful and unkind. There's a verse in the Bible where the apostle Paul says, I wish everybody were like me. As long as I'm following Christ, isn't that powerful? Isn't that great to know there is a right way to do life? And it all starts with your words. I hope you put on your makeup every day. If you're a female. I hope you comb your hair. I hope you put on some, you know, Channel 5 perfume or some strong cologne. If you need to shave or brush your teeth. Or if the barn needs painting, paint the barn. I hope you put on nice looking clothes. I hope you smell good. I hope you excel in your work. Hope you make a ton of money. I hope you live happily ever after. All of that will be built upon one thing. The way you talk.

Your words. Isn't it interesting? And I'm going to close with this. I don't know if this is true, but I'm guessing the Bible says that God spoke the world into existence. Let there be light. Let there be fish in the water. Let there be foul upon the earth. Let the trees come forth. I don't know this for sure, but I believe God could have snapped his fingers and done it. I believe he could have nodded his head and done it. Some of us remember. I dream of Jeanne. She would cross her arms and nod her head and something would happen. I believe God could have nodded his head or snapped his fingers and things would have happened. That's not what he did. He spoke it. There's something powerful. Let there be light. Let the earth bring forth life and living creatures and trees and food. Even when Jesus showed up, it says he was called the Word. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. Something powerful about words. I just trust that you will raise your awareness. And don't be like the people in my audience when I tell them the most important thing you have is your words, that they sit there and look at me like, okay, I hope you'll be the kind of person that goes, I got it. I understand. And I'm going to put a watch over my mouth and a guard over my lips, and I'm only going to say things that will encourage, help and bless others. If you do that, I promise you, you will have found the secret to having a great life. I'm Dr. Robert Rome. Hope you enjoyed today's podcast. I look forward to talking to you or hearing from you or seeing you real soon. Thank you so much.

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