
In actual fact, we can all be considered "weird" in certain situations or circumstances. One of the most offensive and harmful tattoos, in his opinion? The letters H-A-T-E tattooed across his knuckles.Ĭalling someone "weird" presupposes that you're the normal one and they're the odd one. In the excellent documentary, " Erasing Hate," we hear the story of an ex-skinhead who is desperate to remove the racist tattoos from his face, hands and body. It conjures up images of discrimination and racism, and should be saved for only the most extreme and justified situations. This word carries a depth of meaning that most of us would never actually hope to convey. Unless someone's actions are truly "bad," there are likely much more accurate and helpful words you can use to offer constructive criticism. Using this word to describe someone's actions -or even worse, their character - is unhelpful and grossly non-specific. Related: Emotional Intelligence: 10 Things You Must Know Positive beats negative in every situation.

I told people in a subheading "Failure isn't an option." Now I put "Success is your only option." Low and behold, when people read that far on the page they stop and read it multiple times. This is a great reminder to use this word sparingly.Īs in, "You're a failure." Is there ever really a reason to use this word in relation to another person? Until three months ago I used this on my payments landing page. In fact, research tells us that we react more slowly to the word "no" than to "yes," and that even our brains respond differently when we're told no. The mother of all negative words, "no" can impact us down to our very core. Sounds like the Twilight Zone, but that was the result of his experiment. The result? The rice that had been praised daily remained white and fluffy, while the other disintegrated into a black, goopy mess. For one of his most notable experiments, he placed two identical jars of rice side by side, labelling one "Thank you" and the other "You fool." He then brought the jars to a local school, and asked students to repeat those phrases to the jars twice each day. In his book, The Hidden Messages in Water, Japanese scientist Masaru Emote detailed some experiments he conducted into the impact of words on both the world and on our health. Reserve this word for situations in which it's truly warranted, or risk alienating and intimidating those around you. If your parents ever called you irresponsible, you know how it feels. If you truly believe someone is of below-average intelligence, telling them they're dumb is going to do nothing to encourage or motivate them. "Dumb" is a cop-out, and is just one of those words you should never use.
