The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword

Words are pow­er­ful. They are the crux of our exis­tence as copy­writ­ers. And your choice of words is cru­cial in get­ting the results you seek, whether you’re a copy­writer or not, and be it in busi­ness or in your per­sonal life.

To com­pel oth­ers to do what you want them to do, words do the job. So it goes with­out say­ing that you need to choose your words. And you need to choose them care­fully. Because words are more pow­er­ful than you think.

How pow­er­ful?

Words sell. They per­suade. They influ­ence. They even forge smiles, dry tears, heal wounds and abol­ish fears. They have the power to bring joy and laugh­ter in an oth­er­wise cold and somber world. And of course, words can make you rich.

But by the same token, words can also hurt.

They can cre­ate havoc out of thin air. They can drive vir­tual stakes through people’s hearts. They can top­ple com­pa­nies and entire gov­ern­ments. And they can even kill. Because, worst of all, they can cause wars. And sadly, they often do.

Words have immense power that can be har­nessed for both the good and the bad. As Edward George Bul­wer Lyt­ton wrote in 1839, “The pen is might­ier than the sword.”

How­ever, I’d like to sub­mit that words also play another (and per­haps an even greater) role. One that holds what I believe to be one of the great­est secrets there is in your busi­ness, and more impor­tantly, in your rela­tion­ships. Use words to this end, and you can achieve not only great suc­cess and wealth, but also great hap­pi­ness, love and peace of mind.

So what is it?

Let me tell you why this is impor­tant before I reveal it to you.

As beau­ti­ful and com­fort­ing as words can be, they can be (and often are) the tools of choice for peo­ple who wish to cause dam­age, instill hatred and inflict pain with the author’s vitriol.

For exam­ple, I’m sure you’ve encoun­tered at some point in your life some peo­ple who spewed venom against you and did so will­fully and unabashedly. They attempted to den­i­grate or hurt you with their words. And unfor­tu­nately, they often suc­ceeded. You’re left shocked and dis­mayed, won­der­ing, “How could they?”

But that’s a double-​​edged sword.

Here’s a case in point: Believe it or not, some peo­ple have sent me hate mail after my last blog post about my ongo­ing divorce and my new­found hap­pi­ness. While there were only a hand­ful of them among a great many who were pos­i­tive, con­grat­u­la­tory and thought­ful, some folks made the effort to ensure I knew how harshly they felt about my deci­sion, and said cer­tain things about me that were far from being congenial.

For one, I was labeled a “quit­ter.” (And I’m being tact­ful, here.) I was told that I’m a per­son who seem­ingly left his wife for another woman “whom I dared call my soul mate.” And then they even went on to say that, short of hav­ing my pri­vate parts cut off, I should have stayed and bit the bullet.

Worse yet, they prided them­selves in say­ing that I would leave my “soul mate” at the drop of a hat if pas­tures greener would ever appear in my life. And oth­ers have jumped to con­clu­sions with­out know­ing the full story (which they don’t need to know), spew­ing their garbage in the sole attempt to throw the other per­son off.

Now, the ques­tion I’ve pon­dered was, “Should I respond?”

But I said to myself, “That per­son doesn’t know my sit­u­a­tion… That per­son doesn’t know what hap­pened between my ex-​​wife and me… That per­son cer­tainly doesn’t know the cir­cum­stances behind my depar­ture… And more impor­tantly, that per­son doesn’t, and will never, truly know what led to my decision.”

Bot­tom line, they don’t understand.

They never will.

And it’s not their fault. Because their words are based on the lit­tle infor­ma­tion they have. That’s all they will have, for I respect my ex-​​wife as to not den­i­grate her, espe­cially in public.

So the ques­tion remains, “Should I respond?” The answer is “No.” I decided against it. Why? Because why would I do to this per­son what that per­son has done to me? That’s judg­ing. “Judge ye not lest ye be judged,” right? But you see, it goes fur­ther than that.

For instance, that per­son may have had a bad day and reacted pre­ma­turely. That per­son may have under­gone a divorce. That per­son may have had a rela­tion­ship with a woman whom left him for another per­son. That per­son may have been the child of divorced par­ents. Or sim­ply, that per­son may have a per­son­al­ity that’s abra­sive by nature.

The lat­ter is impor­tant, because if a per­son has a crass, abra­sive or sul­fu­ric per­son­al­ity, then it would mean noth­ing. It’s just who they are. But if a per­son is by nature kind, diplo­matic and per­son­able, then such an out­burst would, in con­trast, say more about the per­son and their attempt to vil­ify, as opposed to someone’s action that’s merely based on their personality.

But you see, I don’t know that. And that’s my point. I know less about their sit­u­a­tion than they know about mine.

I hold no ani­mos­ity toward my ex-​​wife, nor do I hold any toward the peo­ple who spewed such venom my way. Because who am I to judge? Why would I judge them and do exactly to them the very thing they are doing to me? My actions would con­done the same actions I am condemning.

It would make no sense.

Then, what can I do? Noth­ing. So I let it go.

My sole aim in my life is to be happy. And even more impor­tant, to have peace of mind. It should be your main goal, too. And hap­pi­ness is not and can never be achieved through some exter­nal thing, sym­bol or cri­te­rion. It comes from within. It’s some­thing upon which I’ve expounded to a great extent in my book, now avail­able online for free at DropY​our​Goals​.com, called “Drop Your Goals And Man­age Your Life!”

To give you a glimpse, my book is about set­ting goals revolv­ing around your core val­ues (I pre­fer to call them “guides” rather than “goals”), and not based on exter­nal pur­suits of hap­pi­ness and suc­cess. Those are byprod­ucts. They are lived, not sought.

Sim­i­larly, to react to such hos­til­ity would only per­pet­u­ate it.

I made deci­sions in my life in order to be happy. But con­trary to cer­tain people’s opin­ions, I didn’t leave an unhappy place in order to go to one I believe would make me happy. I left a place that pre­vented me from being happy. I left in order to allow myself to become happy.

Nev­er­the­less, hid­den in my per­sonal story is this “other role” words play that I spoke about ear­lier. Mas­ter this one skill and use words to this end, and you can lit­er­ally achieve all you really want in your life. I really believe that.

Because once you do, you open your­self to oppor­tu­ni­ties around you, which are often hid­ing right under your nose. You allow serendip­ity to enter your life, your rela­tion­ships and your busi­ness. (Suc­cess is never a mat­ter of luck, any­way.) You cre­ate a state of mind that’s con­ducive to receiv­ing all that you deserve in your life — and feel­ing wor­thy of it, too. And you gain the peace of mind that will enable you to calmly see things for what they really are.

(And they are all lessons, by the way. Because peo­ple, good or bad, are all teach­ers. They are teach­ing you every sin­gle day, and with every sin­gle word they utter. Whether you grow hate­ful and spite­ful from their words, or wiser and stronger, the choice is ulti­mately yours and yours alone.)

So what is it, then?

What is this power that words hold, which can bring such joy and hap­pi­ness? What is this impor­tant role words play in your life and your busi­ness that can enrich so immensely and deeply? Aside from fact that words have the power to hurt or to help, to annoy or to per­suade, to wound or to heal, what else can words do that can help you achieve all you can?

It is, sim­ply, this…

Words have the power to for­give, too.

About the Author

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