Rock Your English! newsletter

What does an egg do with its friends for fun?
Ready. Wait for it….

Kara-yolk-e!
(Thank you for smiling and nodding.)

Hello dear!
Thank you for clicking on my newsletter. And pretending to laugh at my lame joke. I have totally embraced my lameness at the wonderful age of 46. How long will you wait until you’ve embraced yours? The sooner the better, I say!

EVERY WORD COUNTS
“Love the newsletter and especially the tone. Reminds me I should better choose my own words.” – Paul, sent to me by email last week.

Thanks, Paul! Your lovely mail inspired me to take a moment to talk about words. I love them. They mean a lot to me. I’m most definitely a Word Nerd. I have built my career around the sword of the word and I’d like to share some of my thoughts with you about the beauty and value of words. I coach a lot of people who have to choose their words very carefully – artists, politicians, moderators, and CEOs. Some of them are in the position where, if a word is used wrongly, it could be the headline in (inter)national newspapers the next day (no pressure, right?). Let’s talk a moment about how to choose the right words.

I often compare writing a song, a speech, a presentation, or a press release (and lots of other things) to cooking. (Stay with me, it will make sense in a minute!) When you’re cooking, many times you open your kitchen cabinet and choose one of the first things you see as part of your way of ‘spicing’ up your meal. However, the first choice may not be the best one. Many times the ‘secret ingredient’ – the one that makes all the difference, is hiding in the back of your cabinet. It might be sitting there, getting dusty, because you haven’t used it in a long time. (If it’s cheese, throw it away.)

Words are the same. I always recommend to first write with your heart, and then step back, analyze what you’ve just written, and filter with your brain. When your heart and your head hold hands, then you know your work is done.

Please take a moment to examine every word before it goes out to another set of eyes or ears – is it exactly what you mean? Have you captured the essence of what you want to say? Does it match the tone/expectation/situation of the target group who will receive it? Are there other alternatives which might be more expressive/appropriate in this situation? If you’re always painting with the same colors, cooking with the same ingredients, and communicating with the same words, a point will come when it will not only be not appropriate, it will also be pretty damn boring. Not only for your audience, but (most importantly!) for YOU. You’re worth investing in and taking that extra critical moment to make sure that your words are the ones you should be using.

Next week I have some very, very exciting news for you, which will help you tackle this problem in a creative, effective, and fun way. Be patient. (I am not…I’m DYING to tell you but we all have to wait just 1 more week…..*checkingcalendarforthezillionthtime*.)

Until then, dear, I send you kitchen cabinets with glass doors, a heart full of inspiration, a brain full of questions, and hungry ears and eyes just waiting to devour your next message.

See you next week (is it next week already? I’m really excited. Really.).

Wit lof from buffi  x