This is not a post about religion, but it is a post inspired by religion, I suppose. Continue reading “End of your rope?”
Tag: words
Bonus post: I love an unexpected turn of phrase
There are many reasons I love my wife. One of them is her creativity. She really has a way with words. Continue reading “Bonus post: I love an unexpected turn of phrase”
Little differences in words make big differences
Mark Twain once said in a letter to George Bainton, in 1888, “The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter–it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”
As we’ve said here numerous times, it’s not what happens to you but what you think about what happens to you that determines your experience. The different flavors of words shapes the way we think about our world, and therefore shapes our experience.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the difference between being humbled and being humiliated. Continue reading “Little differences in words make big differences”
Words matter: it is, indeed, a very holiday
It has become popular in certain circles to characterize wishing someone “Happy Holidays” as denying Christmas, as if anyone who says anything other than “Merry Christmas” intends to denigrate Christianity. Continue reading “Words matter: it is, indeed, a very holiday”
Get past the Mehrabian myth
If you have studied communication much at all, I’ll bet you’ve been exposed to a common set of figures: only 7 percent of the meaning that comes from an interaction comes from the words exchanged. 38 percent comes from the voice, and 55 percent from the body language. You should have a source for information like that, of course, and there has always been a good one: Dr. Albert Mehrabian.
I even cited those figures in a textbook I co-authored, since the figures appeared in the textbook I used as a student way back when Aristotle was in knee pants. They’re great figures that help speakers make a point about delivery.
Except they’re wrong.