I have noticed in my daily life that my language has not necessarily become negative or pessimistic, but has become a “neutral terminology” if you will. It started with saying “morning” instead of “good morning”, and has become influenced by other greetings. When someone asks me how it’s going I will usually respond with “pretty good” or “it’s going”. These are not necessarily negative statements, but depending on how the person’s state of mind is currently at it could invoke a negative thought process.

You might be asking why would “pretty good” be perceived as negative? Pretty is a positive word and good is a positive word. The word “pretty” can be perceived as the same as “mostly”, thus sometimes someone could have the thought process that wonders what could be going wrong.

I have a friend who is one of the most positive people that I know. He has embedded positivity into his daily language to the point that when I know he is going through a difficult time, I can still ask him how he is doing and he will always say “fantastic”. When he’s is overstressed on his job, I can ask him how his project is coming along and he will say “fantastic”.

My Bro-In-Law has done this in his daily language also. When you ask him how he is doing he states “wonderful”. Even when you ask him “how’s it going”, he responds “living the dream.”

I don’t want to have anyone perceive me as pessimistic even in the slightest. I know it is minor, but if changing one or two words in my daily language could improve that it will be worth it.

I going to start saying “good morning” in place of just “morning”, for “pretty good”, I will be saying “I’m doing great”. This may not influence someone’s thought process, but at least I can feel better about myself knowing that I am making progress in a positive direction.