It’s just a word, right?

“Oh I’m not a real writer. This is just a little hobby of mine – only something I do for fun.“

Do those words sound like something you’ve heard before?

It’s hard, owning up to the fact that you actually want something. That you have accomplished something and that you’re proud of what you accomplished – especially when it comes to creative writing.

I’ve noticed something about me that I don’t particular like (understatement of the year). Not only do I belittle my own accomplishments, but I also belittle the accomplishments of my friends.

“Oh her? She’s just an office assistant. And him? He only went to school for 2 years.”

I sound like a snob, don’t I? It’s horrible. I hate that I do this.

It’s just words that are coming out of my mouth and I don’t mean any harm when I say them, but I should know better. There’s no such thing as ‘just’ a word.

It’s never ‘just’ words.

By placing that annoying little word in the middle of my sentence I’ve belittled the entire essence of the sentence, and I don’t want to do that anymore.

Words have power.

Small words like 'just' sometimes have more power that we think.

As of today I’m going to limit my use of the words that de-evaluate the essence of what I’m saying. I’m not going to expel these words from my vocabulary completely (nothing good ever comes from being extremist), but from now on I will use them much more carefully.