Your language not only affects how others perceive you; it also has the potential to shape your behavior.
According to Professor Bernard Roth at Stanford swapping one word for another could make all the difference in how you approach your goals.
Here are two of his suggestions:
- Swap 'but' for 'and'
- Swap 'have to' for 'want to'
Both of these tweaks are based on a key component of a problem-solving strategy called "design thinking." When you employ this strategy, you try to challenge your automatic thinking and see things as they really are.
And when you experiment with different language, you may realize that a problem isn't as unsolvable as it seems, and that you have more control over your life than you previously believed.