Sophie's Success Shortcuts

There is a reality out there… most likely. but what it is? who knows…

Our filter or translator between reality and our mind is words. What we can’t put words around, we can’t see.

The natives could not see the Santa Maria because they didn’t have a word for sails, or big ship… they had word for ripple in the ocean, but it didn’t translate to potential enemies landing and slaughtering them…

The original IQ test measured largely our capacity to mirror the world with words. Even the logical tests can only be done if and when someone has a concept of triangles, or sequential numbers… all words.

What happens when your vocabulary is tiny, and you use a word that you have but isn’t the correct word to express what others see… you end up with a picture of reality that leaves you vulnerable, alone, isolated, and incapable of living in society.

Seriously abused children, when they grow up, become like this: always ready to be hurt. If, by the grace of God, they manage to re-learn reality by adding new words and connecting them to what they see differently, they can integrate into society and can be very successful and very useful for others.

Most people learn their language from healthy, well-adjusted people, and thus don’t have to go through this upgrade, but many do.

If your history included being unloved, unwanted, you may have associated yourself with garbage… I myself called myself disposable, and throw-away, but luckily not garbage.

Healthy thinking includes: one man’s garbage is another’s treasure: and there you have it, you have options, even if you thought you are garbage: you can become another’s treasure, so garbage is not a definitive term for useless, it is a relative term.

One of the most important things a person can do, is increase one’s vocabulary by consciously reading. Not just the dialogue, especially not the dialogue, the thoughts, the descriptions, the associations.

The richer your vocabulary the easier you can unplug unhealthy and limited meanings, and can more successfully maneuver in the “real” world.

You’ll notice that I give you a lot of writing assignments.

This is the reason.

Your vocabulary, your richness of expression limits who you can be. Limits who you can successfully influence. Limits your life.

Living in a foreign country with a native is not very helpful. Make sure you create your own microcosm by reading, reading, reading. Good literature. Good non-fiction. Read to create new pathways in your mind. Read to create a new future for yourself.