PEPonline Professionalization of Exercise Physiologyonline An international electronic journal for exercise physiologists ISSN 1099-5862 Vol 3 No 8 August 2000   The Power of Your Words Tommy Boone, PhD, MPH, FASEP Professor and Chair Director, Exercise Physiology Laboratories College of St. Scholastica Duluth, MN I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN my high school football coach who said, “Yes, you can do it.”  I have not forgotten how the coached helped me.  “You can do it” are powerful words, and I have not forgotten my teachers who influenced me to be better than I thought I could be.  The lessons learned over a lifetime impact each of us in all kinds of ways.  What is the power of a teacher who cares, really cares?  I believe it is critical to the teacher's success and the students' success as well.  Words can encourage us to master our work or they can create hesitation and, at a critical moment, cause us to give up.  As a college teacher, I know we can make and break a student's morale and belief in him- or herself.  We can help students ask more of themselves and cause them to “get with the program” and, yes, we can cause students to second-guess themselves.  Again, I have not forgotten the powerful, positive words shared with me years ago.  I have been influenced to do better, and I am forever grateful.  The words that were shared with me helped me change my views and beliefs about what I could do then and what is possible now.  I know that my behavior was changed then and, most importantly, now I can look back and see that I’ve always been in a better position than some of my friends in bringing out my abilities to do what needed to be done.  I imagine that if more teachers shared positive words with their students, whether in high school or college, either place would be a better environment for building trust in the teacher-student relationship.  However simple it may sound, building trust is important.  The more students who can relate to their teachers the better, especially since an education assumes a certain ability on behalf of the teacher to inspire students to lift their sights and to think critically.  Building trust helps to increase spontaneity, creativity, and joy in finding possibilities to challenges and conditions that otherwise appear impossible to solve (1).  The power in words is therefore something all teachers should understand.  Teachers are more important than programs, although it is likely that good teachers create good programs.  But programs don’t have blood flowing through arteries.  People do, and it is the relationships between the teacher and the students that change, help, and encourage students.  Relationships are important to the success of most students and, thus the success of the department as well.  For the most part, teachers understand this point.  But, my sense is that an unknown percentage simply is not open and trusting of the students.  Some teachers see students as a distraction; someone or something that has (for a semester) moved between them and their immediate goals to publish or to find time to get involved with other professional concerns.  All good teachers understand the importance of finding time for their students.  They are thinkers, and they like sharing ideas with students (2).  They enjoy leading students in the learning process, in finding and creating opportunities that open up possibilities in personal and professional growth, and in helping others to be successful.  Good teachers get their students involved in the experience of learning.  They see themselves as mentors and, therefore, spend a lot of time creating options in learning how to think.  They are leaders in selling themselves to influence others to take action.  A student's contact with a caring teacher can begin the shaping of the whole individual and set the tone of the student's life.  An uncaring teacher may block and distort the student's development (3). The quality of what we do as teachers is directly related to the strength in partnership with our students.  An ancient adage expressed it best: Joys shared are multiplied; troubles shared are divided.  As teachers, we must share positive thoughts and possibilities with our students.  We must help them have hope.  Even a dwarf can be a giant and accomplish great things in life.  It is often the unseen life of the teacher, working on behalf of all his/her students, that helps to create a more perfect and harmonious partnership between the two.  The power of your words can't be overlooked.  Words, good and positive words, can help create an extraordinary awareness to see the commonly unseen in each of us.  I'm reminded of a passage in a wonderful book by Marcus Bach.  "I realize again that men who do great things combine great visions with an almost childlike trust and wonder about life's inexhaustible possibilities.  They seem to live in two worlds at once, the world of traffic and time, and the timeless world of the big screen -- and to them these worlds are one." (4).  Teaching is also an act of childlike trust that it matters and has a point to it, mostly the idea of inexhaustible possibilities in a timeless world.  My expectation is that all teachers will appreciate the power in their words, and that they will use the right words for the good of their students. One final observation. The following words came to mind from an excellent “little” book (only 52 pages) with a lot of powerful words. “The universe does not favor the greedy, the dishonest, the vicious, although on the mere surface it may sometimes appear to do so; it helps the honest, the magnanimous, the virtuous.  All the great Teachers of the ages have declared this in varying forms, and to prove and know it a man has but to persist in making himself more and more virtuous by lifting up this thought.” (5)  Achievement, of whatever kind, is the result of effort, self-control, directed thought, and critical reflection.  Cherish the power in words and, where appropriate, share in the building of confidence in another person and expect that both of you will achieve your widest dreams. References 1. Lee, B. (1997). The Power Principle: Influence with Honor. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. 2. Moyers, B. (1989). A World of Ideas. New York, NY: Doubleday. 3. Pullias, E.V. (1963). The role of the college teacher. In E.V. Pullias, A. Lockhart, M.H. Bond, M. Clifton, and D.M. Miller, Toward Excellence in College Teaching. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Publishers. 4. Bach, M. (1965). The Power of Perception. New York, NY: Double Day & Company, Inc. 5. Allen, J. (1992). As A Man Thinketh. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble.   Copyright ©1997-2000 American Society of Exercise Physiologists. All Rights Reserved. ASEP Table of Contents Questions/comments