Part #2
It’s been too long since I added to this blog, but schedules are more demanding at some times than at others. Anyway, now that our busy schedule has afforded a moment to breathe, let me continue on this subject of clean speech.
Character demands totally clean speech because, as we wrote before, the character trait respect is involved. A person of character exercises respect consistently – and that respect is shown in what we say. The children’s book, Georgey Giraffe’s Giant Respect, Character Companions® Series #6, teaches children that respect consists of gaining knowledge as to who has value, and always showing those people that you value them, regardless.
For example, do you believe your spouse has value? Then you should show your spouse that you value him or her by training your tongue to speak only clean, good words in your spouse’s presence. Foolishness? Not at all! Many marriages would improve vastly if the husband and wife cleaned up their speech toward one another.
Do you value your children? How much do you value them? Enough to sacrifice your unclean speech to show your children you value them? What about your employer and colleagues? Or, if you don’t value them, do you value yourself enough to clean up your act? This is not something that will make you less likeable or less employable. Building character in this area of your life can only improve your interaction with those around you.
If you are determined to exercise respect toward others, showing that you value them, you will also be determined to analyze your speech patterns, and set goals as to how you can clean up your speech. This may require a number of activities, and may require a long period of time if you have allowed your speech patterns to drop to the lowest common denominator.
Character building efforts that destroy an unwanted behavior such as foul speech must also include efforts to build the desired behavior, such as clean speech. So, while you will work to delete the unclean and borderline expressions from your vocabulary, you will want to replace them with words from the wealth of good vocabulary available to you. You will want to check a dictionary or thesaurus, hard copy or online copy, and find several words to replace the ones you are deleting.
You will want to set definite goals, with definite dates. New habits take a minimum of 21 days to establish, so a goal of 21 days is suggested. The adult self-help book entitled Character, #1 in the Character Builder Series, offers clear how-to directions for building a character trait. These directions will help you set and reach your goal of cleaning up your speech. If you are dealing with children or teenagers who need to clean up their speech, this book will help you guide them, too.
Character demands totally clean speech as a sign of respect to others. Surely there are people in your life that you value enough to make the effort required in this. Within a few days, I hope to add another part to this discussion, with practical steps you can take, easy things you can do to break the bad habit and replace it with a good one.
That’s the view from my chair. What’s your view?