Smile and Move Make a Difference with Your Kids

Smile and Move Make a Difference with Your Kids

Clean up your language! By Harvey Mackay

Clean up your language!

By Harvey Mackay
   
If  there was ever a question about the character of Generation Z, those  born after 1990, I am pleased to report that there are some who act more  like adults than those of us who are way past our 21st birthdays.

A  budding superstar of this age group is McKay Hatch, a teenager who is  the force behind getting a Cuss Free Week declared annually in  California during the first week in March.  (I already like him no  matter how he spells his name!)

He has a following of more than  20,000 members from all over the world in his No-Cussing Club.  There  are club chapters in all 50 states.  You may have seen him on the news  — he’s been on national broadcasts on CNN, FOX News, ABC, NBC and CBS.

McKay’s  cause is inspiring, and his enthusiasm is contagious.  He is a charming  young fellow with a very serious message:  “Our members take the ‘No  Cussing Challenge,’ which is a commitment to themselves to use better  language.  This commitment not only improves their lives but also the  world around them.  Through our motto, ‘Leave People Better Than You  Found Them,’ our members are also looking for opportunities everyday to  help people and lift them up through their words and actions.”

Did I mention that he was just 14 years old when he started his organization in 2007?

McKay’s  message makes sense not only for kids but perhaps even more so for  adults who aspire to be successful in business and in life.  Find his  website at www.Nocussing.com.

There  are more than 250,000 words in the English language.  Fewer than a  dozen are those dirty words that once got your mouth washed out with  soap.  Nowadays, that language is heard routinely in conversation,  movies, even in the hallowed halls of Congress.  Do those words really  get the message across any better?

I’ll confess — I swear  sometimes, and I’m not proud of it.  The real hazard of using bad  language around your pals is that it becomes a habit.  At some point, a  bad word or two will slip out at a most inopportune time — during a  negotiation, at a social gathering, or over a microphone you didn’t  realize was turned on.  Embarrassment becomes the least of your worries  then.

Let me tell you, if I am interviewing a prospective  employee and an obscenity enters the conversation, the interview is  over.  I can’t trust that person to go out and represent our company.  I  had a complaint from a customer once that the salesperson was swearing  during a presentation.  When I confronted our employee, he didn’t even  realize he had used the words.  He apologized to the customer, and we  handed the very lucrative account to another rep.

The words you  use say a lot about you.  Bigger words are not necessarily better than  smaller words, but they are better than dirty words.  Beef up your  vocabulary so that you have options when you speak.  Try these  strategies to improve your language:       
Read a variety of materials.  Read trade publications,  newspapers, magazines, classic books, great speeches, websites or  anything that stimulates your brain without contaminating it.
Use  the dictionary.  You don’t need the multi-volume Oxford English  Dictionary at your fingertips.  Your laptop has a dictionary, your  smartphone has a dictionary app, and Webster’s has pocket-sized editions  that have plenty of serviceable words in them.  Look up words you don’t  know so that you can use them intelligently in conversation or writing.
Practice  saying new words out loud.  It’s not as silly as it sounds.  If you  want to get in the habit of using the perfect word for the occasion, you  must be comfortable saying it.  Don’t be a showoff, using big words  just for effect.  On the other hand, there’s no crime in demonstrating  your competence.
Play word games.  A crossword puzzle or a game  of Scrabble can boost your vocabulary without feeling like hard work.   And swear words are off-limits in both, so you have to find acceptable  alternatives.
McKay Hatch has a head start on success.  He has  learned, at a very young age, that offending others has consequences  that extend far beyond making you look ignorant.  We would all benefit  from his advice:  to leave people better than you found them.  A real  language superstar doesn’t need to have his language replaced with these  stars (****) and punctuation symbols (%&#!).

Mackay’s Moral:  What you say is what you are.

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