The Power of Words: Self-Talk and Shakespearean Wisdom

[00:00:00] What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Juliet, who's prevented from marrying her Romeo by a feud between families, Complains that Romeo's name is the only thing that keeps them apart. Well, Bill Shakespeare died over 400 years ago, but it's still considered the greatest playwright the world has ever known.

The dude knew the power of words, which is why we still study him today. Now I'm the first to say that I don't care what other people say about me or what they call me. It's never bothered me. And I think it getting bent about someone else's opinion of you is unnecessary and kind of ridiculous. You may disagree with me, you know what?

That's absolutely fine. But what you say to yourself, however, that's a whole different conversation. So let's get into it.

Here's the million dollar question. How do men like us reach our full potential, growing to the men we dream of being, while taking care [00:01:00] of our responsibilities, working, being good husbands, fathers, and still take care of ourselves? Well, that's the big question. In this podcast? We'll help you answer those questions and more.

My name is Brent and welcome to the Fallible Man Podcast.

We know the power of naming things. In therapy, a therapist will have a patient given name to what ails them. Or if it's a specific trauma, they'll have a name given to that name. To give into that trauma, a creator will give a name to their ideal audience or their avatar mines, Bob, that's my avatar. When I'm writing a show, I think about what does Bob worry about?

What does Bob need? What is Bob concerned about? What's going on in Bob's life, right? We give names to things because giving it a name. Give something meaning and framework. I love years ago, they made a movie called over the hedge and these [00:02:00] animals that are hibernating wake up and all of a sudden in their wilderness, their wilderness has been boxed in as now a park inside of a small little suburban community.

And they find out because they run into this giant hedge and everybody's freaked out about this hedge. And they're like, here, we'll, we'll call it. What is it? What is it? What's it called? Oh, we'll call it Steve. Steve is much less scary. Why? Because we gave it a name. Having the name gives framing, gives meaning, gives, let's just box it in in our head.

Well, how about these names? Bully, asshole, jerk, punk, dirtbag, antagonist, villain. Hmm. We've all heard those names before, by the way, my name is Brennan. Welcome to the fallible man podcast. You're home for all things, man, big shout out fallible nation. That's what I like to call the people who've been listening to us for a long time and are here episode after episode, the warm welcome to our first time listeners, Hey, we know there's a lot competing for [00:03:00] your attention.

So thanks for hanging out with us today and giving us a chance, checking out what we got to say. Hope you enjoy the show. Be sure to connect with me at the fallible man on Instagram or anywhere else. You want to be social media wise. That's where you can reach out to me. I'd love to hear what you thought of the show.

So please let me know what you think. And if you really get something out of the show, be sure to share it with a friend or leave us a review on Apple podcasts that helps more people find us. And we'd really appreciate that. Let's get back to it. Now, Bill Shakespeare wrote a lot of plays and in Hamlet act two, scene two, Hamlet says, I am, but mad North Northwest when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from Hansel.

Now, for all of you who don't speak ye old Shakespeare English, those means that Hamlet is more often sane than mad. And That he is still able to distinguish between like and unlike things. The imagery involves bad weather and a hunting bird, [00:04:00] but Hamlet really means to say that he's still able to distinguish his enemies from his friend.

Even on a bad day. And if you're not familiar with why Hamlet's talking about that, go watch the Mel Gibson version. It actually was really pretty good. There is a much longer Kenneth Branagh version that is just an all star cast, but it's like four hours long. So unless you can handle deep Shakespeare, you might start with Mel Gibson version.

They're both pretty, pretty good. Now that aside, Hamlet being one of the great plays ever. Hamlet still, as he, everybody's thinking he's losing his mind. Being able to distinguish things that mean him harm from things that are not. Now, all those names we rattled off are pretty good fit for the way most of us talk to ourselves.

We often don't know our real enemies from our friends, because for a lot of people, we are our own worst enemy and we don't know [00:05:00] it. Our friends don't talk to us that way. Our friends don't call us those things. Our friends certainly don't talk to us the way we talk to ourselves, because if they did, they probably wouldn't be our friends for much longer.

But let me give you a less Shakespearean example. I had a colleague, I call this my tale of dumb. See, I had a colleague in the field. I'm in now in working with men. Once tell me that I should address my audience as. Men and not say guys. Cause I say guys a lot. If you've been around for a while, you've heard me say it probably way too many times now guys is too generic and it allows for immaturity and insinuates boys or children, according to my friend.

Now, truthfully, I spent many years living in the Midwest. In my formative years and guys was a common colloquial term for groups of people, either groups of men or groups of men and women, [00:06:00] that's just a normal part of my speech patterns. I didn't mean anything by it. It's just part of the way I talk and it freaks people out every now and then, but I hadn't thought about it being something that I should pay mind to.

And when he pointed out, it made me think for a few minutes, like till I got off the conversation. And then I blew it off as. Being kind of silly and petty, which was my own failings as a person in that moment of growing. It was dumb because this colleague was someone I really look up to and that I was looking at going, man, I hope I'm where this guy is in a few years, right?

I really look up to him in the field and totally just blew it off. Now I've often thought. Influencers and personalities who throw around terms on social media. Like, Hey Kings do [00:07:00] this. Right. I, I, that wouldn't always, I'm like, what the hell are you talking about? Right. And they throw around Kings and they're like, yo men and Kings.

And I thought it was just dumb. I honestly, like, I've always just thought it was dumb. There's people trying to hype up people and sound a certain way, get guys riled up so they will follow them always blown off shortcomings on my own. Right. Right. But let's talk about the power of self talk and we'll tie that back in.

You see, Shakespeare also said in Hamlet, we know what we are, but no, not what we may be. We essentially are limitless gentlemen. Absolutely limitless. We know where we are currently, but we have no idea what we can be if we apply ourselves. However, if we don't recognize the power of negative self talk, we'll never find out.

The words we speak to ourselves can limit you. They can stop you. They can crush you. [00:08:00] They can leave you weak or they can make you free to become your limitless possibility that you are the way we talk to each other has a direct correlation on everything we achieve on life. People who talk to themselves in a negative light over and over and over again, have low self esteem.

They have lower ambition. They don't actually believe in themselves. They talk down to themselves. Like I said, you would punch a friend or a friend or someone who talked to you the way you talk to yourself. But again, and again, I was having a conversation with neuroscientists the other day, we have like.

80, 000 thoughts a day or something. And most of them are negative as men. We have to get this negative self talk out of ourselves because while I don't care what somebody else calls me, what I call myself can absolutely crush me. [00:09:00] So call yourself man, men, gentlemen, King, boss, whatever affirmation you need to label yourself with and make sure you give yourself a title.

That you wouldn't disparage with your own words. If you wouldn't talk down to King, our boss, maybe that's what you need to call yourself because you're like in your head, you can't reconcile talking to a King that way. Discipline yourself, talk and lock that tongue up and demand yourself to talk to yourself as kindly as your best friend would are better.

If you want to reach for your full potential, remember the bard knew the power of words. Shakespeare got it. It was clear. That's why we still talk about him 400 years later. The words you speak to yourself will change everything in your life for better or for worse. Negative self talk, self talk actually has a bigger sabotaging influence in your life than most people will ever know.

It may [00:10:00] be the one thing that's actually absolutely holding you back from reaching that thing you're reaching for. are, and maybe just part of the equation, but I guarantee negative self talk is stopping you from being who you want to be and being where you want to be and doing what you want to do. If you're aiming for your full potential, take it from Bill, be not afraid of greatness.

Some are born great. Some achieve greatness. And others have greatness thrust upon them. So Kings give that self talking check and be better tomorrow because of what you do today. We'll see you on the next one. This has been the fellow man podcast. You're home for everything, man, husband, and father. Be sure to subscribe.

So you don't miss a show head over to www. thefallibleman. com for more content and get your own fallible man [00:11:00] gear.