Are you primed for influence?
How you are primed makes a difference.
What do John Kennedy, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, and Ronald Reagan all have in common besides the fact that all are remembered as powerful leaders?
Answer: All were leaders whose words rocked the world, inspired millions, and helped change the course of history for generations to come. All were “primed for influence.”
Below is a quote from each that has had lasting influence:
“Our problems are manmade—therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.” – John Kennedy
“If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives: Be kind anyway. If you are successful you will win some false friends and true enemies: Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank people will try to cheat you: Be honest anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight: Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous of you: Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten by tomorrow: Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough: Give your best anyway.” – Mother Teresa:
“Cowardice asks the question – is it safe? Expediency asks the question – is it politic? Vanity asks the question – is it popular? But conscience asks the question – is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.” – Martin Luther King
“These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. And these are the heroes who helped end a war.” – Ronald Reagan’s words spoken to honor the Army Rangers who helped liberate Europe from Nazism
What is so special about the words of leaders primed for influence?
Words of leaders primed for influence express hope, right living, encouragement, and honor for self and others.
What about your words – words spoken by everyday leaders? You don’t need to be a world leader for your words to influence beyond anything you could think or imagine. Your words have the explosive power to imprint a life (your own and others) and change the course of one’s destiny, for better or for worse.
I remember years ago sitting in a program presented by Ron Willingham, author of the excellent book, Selling for the 21st Century. Ron shared with his audience a painful time from his childhood when making model wooden airplanes was all the rage. Ron, excited to try his hand at making one of his own. He painstakingly created a model airplane by gluing together dozens of pieces ever-so-carefully, piece by piece by piece, and then took it to show his parents. As he held out his “work of art” for his father to appreciate, his dad looked at the airplane and then looked at Ron’s mother and said, “Do you think he’ll ever learn to do anything right?”
Cut to the quick by his father’s words, Ron took his model wooden airplane to the burn barrel at the back of their home, tore it apart piece by piece, dropped it into the inferno, and watched it go up in flames. Ron never again attempted to make a model wooden airplane. Based on Ron’s story, his father was primed, but not for positive influence.
Words are reflective of the track we run on. One leads to hope, another to despair. One leads to encouragement, and one leads to discouragement. One leads to life and the other to death. What track are you running on? Do your words honor and respect you? Do they honor and promote others or do they disrespect and harm? Do your words encourage and uplift you? Do they elevate and transform others’ lives or do they bring down and destroy? Do your words create harmony and build unity or do they separate and divide?
Because only you have the power to prime yourself for influence, only you can change the thoughts you think (what you say when you talk to yourself) and the words you speak.
Click here to learn more about my Influential Leader Program, which will give you what you need to prime yourself for influence and success.
Here is my personal challenge for you: For the next week take note of the words you speak. Take a piece of paper and draw a T with a horizontal line across the top and a vertical line down the center of the page, creating two columns. Label the heading over the right column BUILDING UP. Label the heading over the left column TEARING DOWN. Then each time your words add something positive to your life or the life of another, make note of it. Each time your words make a negative impact on you or another, make note of it. At the end of the week, total each column. This will give you some idea as to how positive an influence you are on you and
in the lives of others.
In the meantime, check out my program, Influential Leader, as it contains powerful advice on how to prime yourself for influence and success.
Head over there now to see what it’s all about!
