This simple rule changes your attitude and your life: never start a sentence\u00a0with \u201cI\u201d unless talking about yourself.\u00a0Use “I” sparingly, only for the few times you mean to talk about yourself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u201d statements drain your power by:<\/p>\n

\n
1. Making you look childlike and immature
   \n<\/strong>Think about how we grow from baby to adult: the baby understands only what it knows, needs, feels. As we grow, we gradually move to see that we\u2019re not the center of the universe. The sign of adulthood is the ability to look at life without constantly talking about ourselves: to talk about an issue or an idea in its own right, not only how it links to us. I have an old friend who always brings every conversation back to herself or her family – people don\u2019t think she\u2019s very smart (although she really is both smart and able). So it\u2019s not enough to be smart – talk smart too.<\/li>\n
2. Blaming yourself for problems
   \n<\/strong>\u201cI didn\u2019t have time for\u2026\u201d makes you look slow or disorganized while “The schedule didn\u2019t allow\u2026” reveals the real issue.<\/li>\n
3. Suggesting uncertainty
   \n<\/strong>\u201cI think it\u2019s noon\u201d versus \u201cIt\u2019s noon.\u201d Worse: \u201cI\u2019m not really sure about and this is probably stupid but I think it\u2019s noon.\u201d<\/li>\n
4. Making disagreements personal<\/strong>
   \n\u201cI\u2019m right about this\u201d starts an argument, not a conversation<\/li>\n
5. Encouraging “touchy feely” language
   \n<\/strong>\u201cI feel good about this party\u201d versus \u201cThis party will be lots of fun\u201d<\/p>\n

   An Easy Cure for the “I” Plague<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

   The “I” word can be difficult to avoid, but there’s an easy solution.\u00a0Ask yourself these questions before you talk:<\/p>\n

   \n
   1. What are you NOT talking about? Yourself, silly.<\/li>\n
   2. What are<\/em> you talking about? Now you have the subject of your sentence.<\/li>\n
   3. What does it do? Try to pick an action verb – see the transformation below.<\/li>\n
   4. Finish the sentence. So instead of saying “I love that dress,” try “That dress looks great on you!”\u00a0You see what this simple change did?\u00a0It made your sentence more interesting\u00a0(especially to the wearer of the dress) and it made the sentence precise.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      In class, in writing and at work, sentences that begin with their actual subjects make you look smart, cut the word count, and discourage interruptions. And remember: it’s not\u00a0about you!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      This simple rule changes your attitude and your life: never start a sentence\u00a0with \u201cI\u201d unless talking about yourself.\u00a0Use “I” sparingly, only for the few times you mean to talk about yourself. \u201cI\u201d statements drain your power by: Making you look childlike and immature Think about how we grow from baby to adult: the baby understands […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/phyllismindell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/never-word-1.jpg?fit=586%2C412","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8jcdI-u","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/phyllismindell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/phyllismindell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/phyllismindell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/phyllismindell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/phyllismindell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/phyllismindell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196,"href":"http:\/\/phyllismindell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/phyllismindell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/phyllismindell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/phyllismindell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/phyllismindell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}