In our last +1, we talked about Stuart Wilde’s wisdom to dominate our lives. Specifically, I repeat again, he told us: “If you are powerful, you will dominate your life.”
I encouraged us to pick ONE thing we’d dominate as a personal discipline. I picked keeping our kitchen spotless. You?
Today I want to talk about the word dominate itself.
It’s a pretty intense word, eh?
You might not like it or you might love it. I love it.
As I contemplated the power of the word and the metaphorical and practical idea it represents, I wanted to know what the word literally meant.
Enter: Dictionary.
Only, it happened to be a weekend day when I was thinking about it. I was on an extended, no-tech, digital Sabbath so I couldn’t turn on my computer to look it up the way I usually would. So, I decided to buy an old-school dictionary the next time I was online.
A couple days later, via the miracle that is Amazon Prime (lol), our 2084-page American Heritage Fifth Edition Dictionary arrived. (Wow. That thing is a piece of art and brings back nice memories of my childhood. If my memory serves me correctly, the only books we had were a dictionary, a set of encyclopedias and a Bible.)
First thing I look up? Dominate, of course.
I flip through the densely-packed, jumbo-sized, sweet-smelling pages and arrive on page 533.
dom·i·nate (dŏm′ə-nāt′)
v. dom·i·nat·ed, dom·i·nat·ing, dom·i·nates
v.tr.
1. To control, govern, or rule by superior authority or power: Successful leaders dominate events rather than react to them. …v.intr.
1. To have or exert strong authority or mastery.
← I like it. Then I flip to page 534 for the origin.
“Latin dominārī, domināt-, to rule, from dominus, lord”
Yep. I’m in.
Time to dominate my life. Time to exert strong mastery. Time to control by superior power.
It’s time to rule.
Moment to moment to moment.
As per our chat a few +1s ago, my internal dialogue goes something like this: “Optimus: Tell me what to do. I am at your command. It’s time to dominate.”
All of which leads us to Today’s +1: How can YOU dominate your life a little more today?
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