Take the 1-Week ‘No Buts’ Challenge

Big changes start with small actions, ideas, and challenges to your accustomed ways of doing things.

I challenge you to mindfully substitute the word and for the word but this week.

“This seems silly,” you say. “What’s the point?”

Words are powerful, especially the ones that fall out of our mouths without much thought. Often, we don’t listen closely enough to what we say and how our habitual word choices subtly affect opinions and outcomes.

How we use words is a big topic, and I thought I’d start with the word but. It has many meanings, and it’s easy to forget that when used as a conjunction (joining two parts of a sentence) but contradicts the first clause.

Before you glaze over with awful memories of elementary school grammar, here’s an example.

“Frank is a super person, but his shoes are yellow.”

What does the color of Frank’s shoes have to do with his character?

“Frank is a super person, and his shoes are yellow.”

In this version, Frank is still super and has colorful shoes. (If his shoe color affects your opinion of him that much,we need to talk.)

Try the simple but … whoops! … simple AND powerful challenge. It’ll expand your thinking in simple and unexpectedly powerful ways.

Want more ways to expand your thinking and improve your life with small AND mighty ideas? Read more posts, get the free Mastery self assessment, join Minutes to Mastery free Wednesday chats, and .

Originally published at https://www.masteryconsulting.net on May 18, 2021.