Precision in Language = Clarity of Thought
They are a disease of our language. They create an insidious, unconscious habit that undermines our intentions and muddies our communication. They makes us appear uncertain, and leaves the listener with a vague understanding of what we want to say. They are two words: kinda and sorta. Sometimes expressed as kind of and sort of, but definitely overused and very difficult to eliminate from your speech, and yet I encourage you to make eliminating these words are priority. Why? Because they are hurting you.
They hurt you in two ways. The most important is in your conversations with yourself. You talk to yourself more than anyone else with the chatter in your brain being constant. Here’s how. Imagine a desire you have, and to make it easy and universal, let’s say it’s a new car. In your mind, the conversation goes like this:
“I kinda want a new car. I think it could be something sort of like an SUV, or maybe sort of like one of those new electric cars.”
Translation: You don’t know what you want! And it’s by knowing what you want that takes you halfway to getting it. If you had this same conversation with a friend, they don’t know what you want either. And you’ll hear these all of the time in business conversation and even in journalism to the point where it becomes annoying. They are as much of a tic as umm yet they are more destructive because they have the power to weaken meaning in whatever follows them.
Just one example from a business meeting this morning: “I kinda want to make this brief.” Do you or don’t you? Dropping the kinda would have made this clearer: “I want to make this brief.” Clearer and two syllables saved for more important thoughts. I could go on with examples, but I’m sure you can come up with your own.
How can you eliminate this habit of speech? First, you need to be aware that you’re doing it so that you can begin catching yourself. Most of the time, the extra words simply need to be dropped. Other times, you will need to find a metaphor, simile or more precise vocabulary word to help you express your intention. Reading from different genres can help with this.
Once you’ve mastered this, you will appear more confident when you speak (because you will be!) and you’ll have a clearer idea of what you want out of life.