Five Minute Friday: Six Words & Phrases to Rethink Using
21 Jun 2024 · 9 min
Ashley Alderson breaks down six words and phrases that undermine your mindset: "I am" followed by negatives, need, should, want, "I can't," and "it won't." Reframe "I can't" as "How could I?" and replace need or should with "I will" or "I am committed to." Notice these patterns in yourself, your team, and your kids.
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Foreign. Business can be a lonely game, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to Boutique Chat where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek. We'll hear from product based businesses of all types, retailers, e commerce and wholesale brands, along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry. I'm your host Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and I can't wait to chat. Hey guys, it's me. And today's five Minute Friday is a bit more of a personal one because I just really think that business is more about it's the mental game. It's how you show up every single day, it's how mentally healthy you feel when you approach that crazy to do list that I know that you have. And it's how you feel about yourself at the end of the day when you lay your head down because how you feel is going to turn into how you perform. And so I bring you these words and phrases today. Six words and phrases that I really want you to rethink using or maybe update how you use these words and phrases. And I bring them to you because these are words or phrases that I've personally struggled with at different points in my journey. And there's times where I've had mindset coaches and business coaches and life coaches that have helped me identify where I'm falling down in my own journey using these phrases. And since I've started to notice how I'm using them, it's changed so much of just how I show up on a regular basis. But it also is not only impacting the business, it's impacting how I lead the team, it's impacting my marriage, it's also impacting how I parent. All of these words and phrases, yes, are huge for me, but I feel like if I can give my kids these words and phrases from an early age and help them jump start preventing some bad habits, it's going to make a huge impact for them. All right, so what are these words and phrases? Well, before I even get started, I just want to tell you this. Anytime you're rethinking about what you think or what you say, you should know the statistics. So I was listening to an Ed Mylett podcast probably two years ago and this has always stuck with me. He had some sort of like brain psychology expert on and he was saying that a positive thought is seven times more powerful than a negative one. I'm sorry, a negative thought is seven times more powerful than a positive one. How Did I jack that up already? And a spoken word is 10 times more powerful than a thought. Okay? So negative thoughts are more powerful than positive ones, and spoken words are more powerful than thoughts. So when you put those two things together and. And we are speaking negatively into this world, it has a significant mental impact on us. So the challenge becomes not just, well, how do I speak more positive or how do I think more positive? Sometimes it's more about just being neutral and not leaning into the negative. So this is where these words come in, because I think these are really common negative words that we speak into existence that we don't know are actually negative. So here's the first one. The two most powerful words in your vocabulary are this phrase I am. Whatever you say after I am becomes your truth, it becomes your reality. If you do a journal, just any day of the week or a couple days out of the week and take a note of what are you actually speaking into existence after I am, it will probably frighten you, right? I'm always late. I am fat. I'm not very good at that. I am. Insert whatever it is here. How often do you actually say something positive after I am? I'm pretty. I'm feeling good. I am looking good. I am actually really good at that. I am excited, I am motivated. I am positive, all those things. What are you saying after I am? That is becoming your truth. What are your kids saying after I am? That is their truth. When. What's your spouse saying after im? What is your team saying after I am? Once you start to take note, IMs are going to, like, slap you across the forehead, so look for them. The second word is need. Oh, need. Need. Need is such a word of lack. It's creating space between where you are and where you want to go. I know I should go there, but I need to think about it. I really need to do that, but I'm not gonna. It's just such a. Just a. A word of letting yourself off the hook. Right? It's not a word of accountability. It's not a word of power. So don't need on yourself. Just like the third phrase, which is should I should, but I won't is really what you're saying. I should do that, but I can't. I should do that. It sounds good, but I know that I don't actually hold myself accountable, so I'm not going to don't should on yourself and don't need on yourself. It's just like a heavy, long, icky word. The fourth word. Fourth is that what we're on, it is, is want. I want to do that. But. There's always a but. I want to learn how to do that thing right. Want is also another word of lacking, gap. It's saying, here's where I am, here's where I want to to be, but I'm not there yet. It creates space. So don't shit on yourself, don't need on yourself, don't want on yourself. And then finally, the sixth word and phrase I want to work into are two things I can't or it won't. So think about this. I can't do the thing right. How many times have you told your kids, don't, I can't or it won't. I can't afford. Will never work. It won't work. Think about those two phrases. What if you took those two phrases and you flipped them on their head and you said instead of I can't afford it, what if you just simply made it a question, how could I afford it? Or if you said it won't work, you made it a question and you said, how could it work? Those two phrases, if you can flip them, become so powerful because they ignite curiosity. So from all these six words and phrases, here's what I want you just to think about next. How can I flip them to either create curiosity, which ignites opportunity, that's going to spark in our mind of how we can actually do the thing, versus I can't, or it won't, which just shuts down all creativity. So what creates creativity? And then my second ask for you is what builds confidence? What creates certainty? So rather than using those words need, should, want, right? They're such whiny words. What if we flip them to words with confidence and commitment? I will, I am, I did, I'm committed to, I am willing to, I am excited to. Those are power words. And need would, should, coulda, woulda, shoulda. Right? Those are total words of weakness. So my 5 minute Friday ask of the week for you is do a little homework, take a journal, do a word study, ask yourself, what are these words that you're hearing come out of your mouth? What's coming out of your family's mouth, what's coming out of your team's mouth, and what's coming out of your kid's mouth. If you can flip around the words and the phrases you're using on a daily basis, it is wildly impactful. Remember, it's not about all of a sudden becoming so positive. Positive, poly sometimes it's about being neutral or being powerful and intentional when with the things that we are saying and the things that we are thinking because those two things together becomes the things we are going to take action on. You guys, thanks for showing up to five Minute Friday. If you love this episode, please give it a share. I would be so grateful if you would. You can tag me over on Instagram @aj Alderson or @ the Boutique Hub anytime and as always, leave a rating and review. I'm so grateful for you guys showing up to listen because I love to pour my heart and my soul into these episodes. So thanks for being here. Have an awesome rest of your week. Thanks for listening guys. I hope you took away all kinds of nuggets and new ideas from this week's episode. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a rating and review. We love to hear your feedback and give you a chance to be featured on the show each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and to activate access guest downloads and bonuses and all the resources we talked about on the show, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.
