More than four centuries ago, William Shakespeare penned the now famous phrase, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet." And while I am reluctant to question perhaps the greatest single figure in English literature, I must take exception with the Bard on this point. What's in a name? Everything!

Words are powerful. Or to quote another great British poet, "The pen is mightier than the sword." The names you give to the things in your life have a direct correlation to the level of success you will enjoy. If you describe your life in positive terms, you will generally experience positive results. On the other hand, if you describe your life in negative terms, you will experience just the opposite. In a very real sense, your vocabulary determines your success in life.

For example, the man who refers to his wife as the "nag" gets a nagging wife and all of the misery that goes with it. On the other hand, the man who describes his wife's persistent reminders as "helpful observations" gets just that; helpful observations that generally enhance the quality of his life. Likewise, the woman who describes her husband as "controlling and manipulative" lives under the weight of a dictator. On the other hand, the woman who describes her husband as a "take charge kind of guy" enjoys the benefits of being with someone who knows where they're going and how to get there.

As with any thing in life, it's all a matter of perspective. And your perspective is directly tied to the words you use to describe something. For instance, if you were describing yourself to a new employer, would you describe yourself as being "determined" or as being "obsessed"? In a sense, both words mean the same thing - that you are fully committed to achieving your objective regardless of the obstacles. However, describing yourself as "determined" would give you a much better chance of selling yourself to a potential employer.

Of course, advertisers realize the power of words in selling products. You'll never find an advertiser describing its products as "cheap". Instead, they are "inexpensive" or a "tremendous value". Well, the same process occurs each day in the world outside of Madison Avenue. We are constantly selling people on our concepts, ideas and even ourselves and our greatest tool in this quest is a positive vocabulary. This is particularly true when you are trying to sell your most important client - you.

To make your dash all that it can be, you are going to need a great many things going for you, the most important of which is a belief in yourself. You need to believe that you are smart enough, talented enough, strong enough and deserving enough to enjoy the best of what life has to offer. In other words, you need to be "sold" on you and your potential for greatness. Obviously, positive words increase your chances of making this all-important sale and negative words have just the opposite effect.

Therefore, it's important to be vigilant about your vocabulary. This is particularly true when describing your opportunities (less enlightened people call them "problems"). Often times, the biggest so- called "problems" present the greatest opportunities for us to stretch and grow. In fact, often without these problems, we would never become even half of what we are capable of being.

In my life, this has certainly been true. If not for my opportunity to spend three years in prison, you would not be reading this newsletter now. I would not have written the DASH book or starting DASH Systems, Inc. In fact, if not for the "problem" of being arrested and sentenced to prison, I truly believe that my past lifestyle would have killed me by now.

And while your "opportunities" may not have been as life-changing, you've probably had your share of problems that later turned into great opportunities. For example, perhaps you were fired from a job, only to land in a job with a stronger company and greater upward mobility. Or perhaps you were dumped by a former girlfriend or boyfriend, allowing you to meet your "soul mate". Or perhaps, a change in the economy forced you out of one industry and into a far more lucrative industry with greater long-term prospects.

It's been said many times that problems are opportunities in disguise. Yet, many times, we allow ourselves to be blinded by the labels we place on situations. For instance, we label our opportunity to seek out new employment as a "lay-off." As a result, we spend so much time focusing on being "off" the last job that we don't take advantage of the opportunity to get "on" a better employment track. The same applies to the opportunities that arise from the other "problems" we all encounter from time to time.

The bottom line is that words have power. They affect the perception that others have of you and more importantly, they affect your self-image. Words even affect your ability to seize the opportunities in your dash. To turn a familiar phrase, "Sticks and stones may break your bones but the right words will always help you."