We all have our personal favorites
- Out-of-the-box
- Cutting-edge
- Proactive
Throw-away words.
Words so overused, we view them as meaningless – not exactly what you want in your business writing.
Makes you feel kind of sorry for those words.
- At one time, many of them were stars
- You might say they were innovative
- At least you would if that wasn’t so overused
Are these words destined for extinction? Many writers hope so, but me, I think there is still life in these former stars.
Word Play
I love words. I like figuring out their origins and playing with words.
As noted in the post, Leave the LinkedIn Name-Calling to Recommendations, it’s not the words that are the problem.
- Overuse wears out the best of words
- Repetitive motion snaps the tendons of originality
Do you now understand why this baby boomer relates to these words?
You’re only as old as you think you are.
Let’s resuscitate our throw-away words.
Meet New Worlds in Words
Have you ever gotten yourself in a rut?
- You hang with the same crowd
- You never try anything new
- You rarely step outside the box
Uh, your comfort zone –uh –
Oh, the heck with it, you know what I mean.
By meeting different people, trying new things, you tap into the energy of change.
That’s what we need for our throw-away words – new blood.
Instead of out-of-the box creativity ~
We pulled the best out of the box and introduced to it the wonders outside.
Same words – just different
Cutting-edge ~
Even cutting-edge goes dull with time. Sharpen your results with our X9-7 platform.
From dull to sharp in less than 30 seconds.
Proactive ~
When proactive produces yawns, sneak in the back door with service.
Pick up that throw-away and use it to your advantage,
New Life
If we deflate the life out of words, why blame the words for failure?
Go outside and play and you, too, can resuscitate our throw-away words to live a new life.
Have you saved a word’s life today?
Offer us some tips in Comments.
Two words ~ Thank You.
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Helping you Keep it simple, clear & uniquely yours – contact me for help with your business writing needs.
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This is a great reason to insure that one develops new vocabulary words daily!
I’m in accord!
Hi Roy! Happy New Year! I like that daily practice. It’s one I would subscribe to. 🙂
Interesting how each person sees words differently. Some of these do seem to be throw-away words. But others…
I use out-of-the-box to alert the listener that they should keep their mind open, that this is not something they should be preconditioned to accept or reject based on past experience.
As for cutting-edge, well that means “new”. It always did, still does. The only difference is that the word is no longer a cutting-edge word.
Proactive is one I’ve never understood. It simply means moving without being prodded. “Let’s do it!” moves me better.
So very true, David. I’m amused by the posts that regularly come out that put words on some sort of taboo list. However, I do agree that we sometimes get lazy in how we use words, so why not give them new life? 🙂
Thanks for your perspective, David.
It’s all semantics. Shakespeare said it best – a rose is a rose by any other name.
We react to words. We have emotional reactions. We have mental reactions. We sometimes have physical reactions. But whatever, awareness of reactions gives us choice and power.
Great post Cathy
Shakespeare – a particular favorite of mine. 🙂
As David pointed out, that reaction can be as individual as we are. Thanks for sharing your view, Roberta.
Was going to say “thank you,” but instead I’ll say “I’m grateful and glad you wrote this post.”
A double G rating – love it 🙂