Verbal economics is the understanding that, like money, our words have value, and the way in which we spend those words affects our investment in our desired outcome.
BECOMING BULLETPROOF, EVY POUMPOURAS, CHAPTER 16, PAGE 209
When I read about this term in her book, I knew I had to write about this because this view is something I started adopting about a year ago in my journal. I have been journaling for about 6 years but it wasn’t until last year that I started writing daily goals for myself as part of my daily journaling routine. At first, those daily goals were just generic goals that I thought were good to set…stuff like “wake up on first alarm”, “go work out”, “eat fruit”, or “manage my stress”. But every time I completed them, I didn’t feel as fulfilled as I thought I would. I mean – they are good goals to set right? Who wouldn’t want to go work out and manage their stress?
It wasn’t that they weren’t good goals but it was because I didn’t assign them any personal value. So I started giving my goals value by assessing how they would contribute to my vision of who I wanted to be. For example, I wake up on my first alarm (and not snooze it) because it tells me that I am committed to the promise I made to wake up at that time. The value this goal gives is making me be more confident. By assigning value to the goals I set for myself, it’s given me a clearer path to where I want to be and who I want to be, but it’s also come with a cost: taking on the responsibility to uphold those values.
Upholding value requires responsibility
Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson says you have two choices for seeing your life: your life is either meaningful or meaningless. If you find your life meaningless, then nothing you do matters and impulsive pleasure is the goal of the day. There’s no responsibility in your life. On the other hand, if you want your life to be meaningful, then what you do matters. You adopt responsibility and the suffering that comes with it, but by adopting responsibility, you almost inevitably make things better.
I choose to see that life is meaningful, which inevitably means that the promises I say and write are meaningful. They provide value to building more confidence in myself and trust with others.
As always,
Be Confident. Stay Curious.
