Be conscious of your language

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 30 seconds.

TODAY’S IDEA: Be conscious of your language

— From Attention Pays: How to Drive Profitability, Productivity, and Accountability by Neen James

Attention Pays is a fantastic book by Neen James that my friend Jeanette Bronée gave me – thanks Jeanette!

The book is all about being intentional and conscious in the way we handle and apply our attention: towards people, our work, the planet, and ourselves.

One of the things James highlights is being very conscious of our language: “Due to our distracted and often split attention, we aren’t always purposeful in how we choose our words and actions.”

And she goes on to ask, “Do the words you use provide positive or negative attention?”

She, in turn, points to Chad Hymas, author of the book Doing What Must Be Done, who often challenges audiences to use inclusive and collaborative language by asking, “Where can you replace the words I, me, my, with you, we, and ours?”

James also suggests we “Remove overused, cliché phrases and replace them with words that help build a stronger personal brand.” And she offers the following chart for some of her least favorite words and her suggested replacements. She says, “Listen to how often you use these words and consider changing them.”

Remove from your language:	Replace with:
But or However	Simply make your point and stop talking; replace with and.
Problem or issue	Challenge or opportunity (which implies a solution
Should	Would you consider
They work for me	They work with me
My team	Our team
Take it to the next level	Accelerate results, create progress or improve performance
Push the envelope	Explore boundaries or overcome objections
Outside the box	Creative, innovative, ground-breaking

 

This exercise reminds me, indeed, of the importance of language, not only as we use it with others, but with ourselves as well.

Years ago, my wonderful mentor and dear friend Monte Lee-Wen had me do an exercise to permanently get rid of disempowering words and phrases, such as I need to, I can’t, I ought to, (but) How?, Impossible. I wrote them down (in English and also in Spanish since the latter is my native language) and then I watched them burn. Here are the pics for you. It was a very powerful exercise for me, since it deleted (physically and mentally too) those words from my vocabulary. Ever since, it has enabled me to use, instead, empowering thoughts and words to replace them. I highly recommend you do this too with the words that bring you down.

Language is powerful, use it intentionally to your benefit and that of everyone around you! Make a habit of using words and phrases that, like a rising tide, will lift all boats around you.

ACTION

TODAY: Think of the words that you use. Are they empowering and lifting yourself and others or are then bringing you down and draining your energy?

FUTURE: Be aware of the language you use when you speak, write, and—especially—when you think. What you say to others and to yourself has the power to motivate or erode trust and confidence.

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