Recently I facilitated a leadership team retreat during which the host played a video of a ‘Super Soul Sessions’ talk from about six years ago by Brene’ Brown. The noted writer and lecturer spoke of ‘BRAVING’ – her acronym about building trust. She also said whenever a word doesn’t exist, like that one, she just makes it up to fit her needs.
While her creation of new words is intentional, lately I seem to be doing a lot of it without purpose. Perhaps it’s a sign of aging. Maybe it’s a lack of focus. Could be my RAM needs rebooting. Nonetheleast, some of the words coming out of my mouth aren’t exactly what I’m intendering.
Sometimes my verbalizeration is simple: “Kelsey said she’ll be here by five,” when, in fact, it was our other daughter Kirsten. Occasionally, I’ll reverse syllables: “You might want to check out this show ‘Luficer’ we’re watching on Netflix.” Then there are times the word is stuck in neutral: “I noticed we haven’t gotten a check from… from… from…” I can clearly see the company name, but I can’t speak it.
With perhaps three-quarters of life behind, I’ll admit to thoughts of the mind and body decline. As a writer, I can wait for the right word to flow through me… or, at the least, spellcheck or use an online dictionary. As a coach and speaker, well… this could be a problem.
Of course, the late comedian and ‘Master of Malaprop’ Norm Crosby made a career out of misspoken words… and Yogi Berra seemed far better known for his challenges with the English language, especially to later generations, than his Hall of Fame baseball legend. So maybe the inagility to say what I’m thinkering isn’t all that bard.
