Home Features Mastermind Videos About Advertise Blog Network Contact
   
Entrepreneur Advice:
Timothy Ferriss
www.4hourworkweek.com
   
About Timothy Ferriss

Serial entrepreneur and ultravagabond Timothy Ferriss has been featured by dozens of media, including The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, NBC, CNN, and MAXIM. He speaks six languages, runs a multinational firm from wireless locations worldwide, and has been a popular guest lecturer at Princeton University since 2003, where he presents entrepreneurship as a tool for ideal lifestyle design and world change. The 4-Hour Workweek is his first book on lifestyle design and details how to outsource and automate your life.



Recent Article:

The 10 Most Common Words You Should Stop Using Now - For more on Timothy Ferriss visit www.4hourworkweek.com

Words are thoughts.

The better we choose our words, the more we hone our thinking machine, and just like software, it’s a case of GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out. Thinking hard is pointless if we don’t use the right tools.

Think and speak with precision. Less is often more. Here are 10 common words I have observed to cause stress, depression, and conflict due to their vagueness. All of them are overused to the point of being meaningless. The solution? Stop using them and find more descriptive alternatives. I recommend focusing on removing one or two each week, even if just as an exercise.

In no particular order…

1. Happiness 2. Success 3. Should 4. Responsible 5. Realistic 6. Reasonable 7. Spiritual 8. Good/Right 9. Bad/Wrong 10. Moral Do you love some of these? Most of us do. But… try and define them without using an equally vague synonym or a tautology.

But why do we love them?

Because they remove the heavy lifting of real thinking. These socially-accepted throwaway terms are crutches for unclear thinking, just like “thing”, “stuff”, or “interesting”–enemies of good writers worldwide. But the above 10 are much more dangerous, as they encourage us to compare, judge, or fool ourselves and others.

Trim the fat and cultivate your thinking with more creative and expressive word choice. As Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.”

Like this article? Share it with your friends
[Get Copyright Permissions] E-Mail | Print | More  


Related Articles Related Articles
The 10 Most Common Words You Should Stop Using Now
  Words are thoughts. The better we choose our words, the more we hone our thinking machine, and just like software, it’s a case of GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out. Thinking hard is pointless if we don’t use the righ...
Confusion - Time to Refocus
  Our world seems confused right now! Should we move forward or stay right where we are? Who knows the answers?
Fathers Day Insight
  I want to share with you this bonus Usable Insight from Dr. Mark Goulston's blog. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!
The Strategic Use of Powerful Words For Your Marketing - Advice From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  Spoken and written words carry awesome power. The words & phrases that you use in your daily business and personal life are extremely important. Our words can add positive power and help us gain success or our wor...
THE DIRECT MARKETING COPYWRITER\'S DILEMMA
  Writing hints

Related Forum Posts Related Forum Posts
Ad words Ad words
Decide your market first Decide your market first
Book Review: Don't Make Me Think Book Review: Don't Make Me Think
Other Great Books... Other Great Books...
Books You Wish Had Been Written Books You Wish Had Been Written
Re: Page content Re: Page content
Re: Motivational Books for Entrepreneurs Re: Motivational Books for Entrepreneurs
Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires
 


More Tim Ferriss

4 hour work week - Timothy Ferrsis



Watch the full-sized video

 

 
   
 
 
   

 

 

Have A Suggestion?
Toronto Salsa Classes / Toronto Salsa Lessons Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
Have A Suggestion?

Featured Ebook


ebook Famous Entrepreneurs - Modern Empire Builders


Featured Ebook

More Evan Carmichael
Have A Suggestion?

Sales Lessons From Starbucks And Dell