Are Your Words Like Turds?
Are Your Words Like Turds?
Are your words like the turds you sometimes find in your yard?
Sometimes words can be soft. Sometimes words can be hard.
Am I being indelicate? Tactless? Coarse? Of course! I wanted to get your attention. I was lying in bed last night letting my imagination roam – though it does the same thing often when I am upright. And I was thinking about how we use descriptive words to make comparisons between ourselves and others.
But more often than not – without even consciously thinking about it – we use more positive adjectives and phrases – soft words – to describe our qualities when comparing ourselves to others.
Here is an example. If I want to compare my being careful with money, I might use a soft word and say: ‘I am frugal.’ I might describe your money-saving ability in a less positive manner as: ‘You are cheap.’ And compare a third person who is not close to me: ‘He is stingy.’ Definitely a hard word.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Frugal, cheap and stingy are words that describe someone who is being careful about spending money. But frugal is often seen as a positive word. Cheap is not quite as pleasant. And stingy is downright negative. Here are some more examples:
Are Your Words Like Turds?
Positive (soft words)
| Not as positive
| Negative (hard words)
|
|---|---|---|
I am eccentric.
| You are unreasonable.
| He is crazy.
|
I am self-confident.
| You are egotistic.
| She is arrogant.
|
I am selective.
| You are choosy.
| She is picky.
|
I am naïve.
| You are childlike.
| She is infantile.
|
I am authoritative.
| You are domineering.
| He is a bully.
|
I am fearless.
| You are reckless.
| She has a death wish.
|
I am firm.
| You are obstinate.
| He is pig-headed.
|
I am cautious.
| You are hesitant.
| She is fearful.
|
I state my case.
| You vent.
| He rants.
|
My clothes are dramatic.
| Your clothes are flamboyant.
| Her clothes are outlandish.
|
I negotiate.
| You haggle.
| He demands.
|
I am well-spoken.
| You are talkative.
| He never shuts up.
|
I am beautiful.
| You are attractive.
| She is pretty . . . plain.
|
I am creative.
| You are random.
| He is a loose cannon.
|
I write posts.
| You write notes.
| She writes post-it notes.
|
My child is inventive.
| Your child is mischievous.
| His child is a spoiled brat.
|
I am assertive.
| You are bossy.
| He is aggressive.
|
I compromise.
| You give in.
| She gives up.
|
I am organized.
| You are overly neat.
| He suffers from OCD.*
|
I am low on funds.
| You are financially impaired.
| He doesn’t have a pot to you-know-what in.
|
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.” – Mark Twain
* OCD is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Can you think of some other comparison examples? Please let me know in the comments.
© Copyright BJ Rakow, Ph.D. 2015. All rights reserved. Author, "Much of What You Know about Job Search Just Ain't So."
