It’s a funny little word, really. On the surface it seems to want to help, to make things easier, to reassure – Are you lost? ‘Oh, it’s just up the road!’ Not sure how to improve your fitness? ‘Just start somewhere, you’ll be right!’
It’s no big deal, you see? We wave away the trouble, the effort, the confusion. But the thing to remember is that whenever we pepper just in our words, we’re minimising. We’re minimising the effort we made. We’re minimising the importance of our message. We’re minimising our expertise on a topic.
This first twigged for me at the Voices of 2015 Masterclass when the ladies from Operation Move explained that the word ‘just’ is banned from their Facebook group, for precisely this reason! These guys are all about helping women become fitter (and in some cases, learn to love running for the first time), and too often they would see members pop in to say ‘I just did 3km today.’ No! You ran a whole 3 kilometres — celebrate that, man! You got up, got out, and did your best! Don’t belittle that effort. Even if you’re managing 100m at a time that is still fantastic. Don’t shrink away from your achievements because you think they’re not worthy compared to your peers.
I’ve had it in the back of my mind since then, and this post on Facebook brought it back into focus. I never realised before how easily ‘just’ snuck it’s way into my emails — especially when I was chasing something or putting myself out there in some way. How often do you write, ‘Hi xxx, I just wanted to follow up with you on (important task/meeting/conversation).’ Or, ‘just whenever you can get to it is fine.’
Me too! All the time! We do it to be casual and friendly, giving an air of ‘I’m cool, no big deal.’ But when I ‘just ask,’ I’m implying ‘this is not important or urgent,’ and that’s not true! I am asking about this because I want or need the information. I’m following up because I expected something from you and it hasn’t arrived yet.
I’m a firm believer that words have power, and what you say (including to yourself) can have a strong effect.
That’s why I’m on a mission to reduce the instances of ‘just’ when I speak and write. Because I’m aware of it now, I catch myself justing (frequently!) and can make a decision about whether I actually mean what the sneaky just implies. Want to join me?
OoOo I love this! I never thought about “just” in this way, and, gosh, I do it all the time too. Will definitely be keeping this tidbit in the back of my head. Thanks Tahlia! 🙂
Awesome, thanks Kaye 🙂
Nice one Tahlia! Just is a bad word!! And so is should, if I say I “should” do something, I now go and do the exact opposite if that thing, because I know its just something I’m doing out of a sense of guilt rather than empowerment!
Thanks for sharing this ya gorgeous soul! Big love Xx
Yes! I too should all over myself. That’s a great exercise, thanks for sharing 🙂 x
Love, love, love this! I’m so guilty of ‘just-ing’ all over the place (in almost equal parts to should-ing) and you’re right, it TOTALLY undermines your inner and outer awesome. Great post, great point and I will be bringing a whole lot of awareness to just how much I use that word in my day from now on. Thanks gorgeous! xx
Woohoo! Thanks for your kind words xx
Holy moley. I never realised that I did that until I was reading your post and man. Just is getting the boot out of my vocab just like overwhelm and a few others. How annoying. Time to celebrate all of the wins no more “just”ing anything! Thanks Tahlia xx
Right?! Yay for celebration xx
Love this post Tahlia! I came across something earlier this month on the word ‘just’ too and especially on how women tend to use this in the work place to justify their requests/questions/comments – putting themselves in a place of inferiority. I am now massively aware when writing not to (over) use this word as I’m totally guilty of over-using it. Thank you for putting it out there xxx
Me too! Thanks so much Nikki x
I read about the ‘just’ slipping in everywhere when we communicate! So I too have been diligently trying to push it out of my sentences.
Nice one Amanda!