We have so many sayings in the American English language. We call them cliches. Or slang. We have a “gazillion” types of word games: Scrabble, Boggle, crossword puzzles, and more. For fun, we make up words and phrases and they almost instantly become part of our lexicon. Words abound in America. And that's when we begin to take them for granted.

Sometimes we misuse words against ourselves and against others. The most popular form of this is called gossip. The word itself implies empty words. ("Gossip" is defined in the dictionary as idle talk, especially about the personal or private affairs of others.*)

Other times, we honor the word and our word gives rise to joy and love and laughter. I think of time spent with family and friends, giving rise to raucous laughter. Those have been some of the best times of my life, enjoying a dinner party or family reunion and laughing until it hurt.

And then there are the times, when we abuse the word, our word, and don’t give it its due.

Words are powerful. With a word, you can build up yourself or someone else. With one word, you can accomplish great tasks and clear ominous obstacles. With words, you can communicate ideas and concepts, thoughts and beliefs, bringing clarity and understanding. With your word, you can bind yourself to another. With a word, you can punish another human being or wound them emotionally. With a word, you can build a relationship or destroy one. Words have tremendous power. And if you don’t use and honor them correctly, they can easily be abused.

In The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz gives this as the First Agreement, “Be impeccable with your word.” In the book, he says, “Why your word? Your word is the power you have to create. Through the word you manifest your intent... The human mind is like a fertile ground where seeds are continually being planted. The seeds are opinions, ideas, and concepts. The word is pure magic; we plant a seed, a thought, and it grows.”**

So I propose this game for some Fun Self-Transformation (and you thought it was never coming). You can play anytime of the day, night, week, month or year. It is based on The Alphabet Game we played, as kids, in the car to pass the time on a long road trip. You know The Alphabet Game, right? You search highway signs or billboards for words beginning in “A” to “Z”. Like if you’re travelling through Anywhere, USA, your “A” might be Amusement, for amusement park (on a billboard advertising one) while your “B” might be for Bridge (as you pass over one).

Well, in this Fun Self-Transformation Game, you’re looking for words - the words that come out of your mouth. In this game, we will focus solely on ourselves because it’s more potent to do so for the purpose of “Self-Transformation". Focus on your words for ten minutes, an hour or a half-day at home, at work or at play ( I couldn't pass up the poetry of it all). If you want to challenge yourself and “step up” your game, you can focus on your words for a 24- or 48-hour period (leaving out, of course, when you’re sleeping... unless... you talk in your sleep and then...).

So here are the specific instructions for this game. Keep a journal so that you can refer back to it later. You can keep a composition notebook, if a journal is a luxury expense for you.