Have you ever noticed how some words, phrases, or voice inflections slip into common vocabulary and suddenly are used by everyone? Here are some:
On every episode of Shark Tank:
Shark Kevin O’Leary: “Enough about the story, what are your sales?”
Entrepreneur: “So, last year we grossed $100,000.”
The overused word here is SO. More and more people start off their responses with So.
- “So…I’m glad you asked that.”
- “So…I’ve noticed I’m getting up four times a night to use the bathroom”
- “So…I would have had report done but I was too busy answering emails.”
It sounds arrogant and brash. Don’t use it.
Here’s another one:
- “We met our sales projects this year?”
- “I’d like to speak with you later about this idea?”
- “I’m not going to tolerate this anymore?”
You can’t catch this from reading it, but the key is the question mark. It’s called UP-talking. It’s common in England, New Zealand, and Australia with those accents, but it’s now done quite a bit here. It makes you sound unsure of yourself. Don’t do it. Make you statements sound like statements rather than questions that should be debated or answered.
The final one is a word: Passion.
Passion suggests an insane devotion. The dictionary defines it as a “strong and barely controllable emotion.” It’s rooted in a Greek verb that literally means to suffer.
That sounds serious.
Here’s what you often hear from people:
- “I’m passionate about mentoring troubled youths.”
- “I’m passionate about my Honda Accord.”
- “I’m passionate about Camel cigarettes.”
Or the big one:
- “Do what you’re passionate about and the money will follow”
Sometimes people say over and over how passionate they are about a thing. I saw this at a church meeting for a mission trip to Mexico where the trip coordinator told us no less than 30 times how passionate she was about this ministry.
I think I’ve done it myself. I used to think I was passionate about developing the next great generation of managers, but now I realize it’s merely important to me. I could say I’m passionate about the Washington Redskins, but if I were, I’d still be a fan even though I’ve moved to Tennessee. Not sure if I will ever be passionate about the Tennessee Titans, but I’ll give it some time.
There’s nothing wrong with the word passion, it’s just used so much that I think it’s lost its significance. Everyone talks about what they really like and refer to it as passion. Passion may be good for you, but if I’m not feeling it, then hearing you talk about it over and over won’t inspire me.
Passion suggests an almost insane devotion to something. One could say a world-class athlete might be passionate, but really they are just driven. You could say you’re passionate about your family or your god, but really, you just love them a whole lot. Come to think of it, I can’t really imagine anything I could be insanely enamored with enough to call it a passion.
But if you could, it would have to be pretty significant.
So your homework this week is to:
- Stop referring to things that you really like as something you’re passionate about.
- Discover something that you are TRULY passionate about.
When you find it, let me know. I’m really anxious to hear about it.
