It’s easy to think that using certain phrases makes you wise, insightful or even persuasive.
We listen to all their time with colleagues, educators, and even countless motives. They look like polished, don’t make effort and full of meaning.
But the truth. Some of these expressions don’t make you smart or original at all. In fact, they do the opposite.
The problem with the cliches is that they are exaggerated in the sense of losing any real impact. Instead of making you thinking of thinking, they mix you with everyone who ever tried to seem deep.
And when it comes to how you present to you. The common generic general of your career or personal life is the last thing you want.
Here are eight common expressions that can cause more damage than good when it comes to your intelligence and originality according to psychology.
1) “Think out of the box …”
This phrase is constantly thrown into jobs, meetings and cerebral storm sessions. It is assumed that it means being creative and approached with new ways. But the irony, using this phrase is the exact opposite of thinking outside the box.
When you say that, you do not offer a fresh idea or a unique prospect. You repeat a phrase that has been used so often, it means nothing more.
Instead of impressing people with your originality, you sound like someone who is trying to make innovation without saying something innovative.
If you really want to stand out, blow cliché and actually show creativity, sharing a unique idea or approach. Otherwise, you are just mixing with everyone who claims to “think outside the box.”
2) “Work smarter, no more difficult”
This one gives great advice until you realize that it doesn’t really mean anything.
I was constantly telling this phrase, especially when I was overloaded with projects and tried to convince myself that you just need to be more effective. But the truth was that I didn’t really know what “smarter” really seemed. I just repeated something that sounded good.
The worst part. I once told it to a partner who was already pushing their border, and instead it made them feel it.
It was the moment when I realized how empty this expression is actually. If someone struggles them, saying “smarter”, it’s not going to suddenly disappear or easier.
If you want to offer real value, be special. Share actual strategies or insights instead of leaning on a wise phrase, but in reality no one helps.
3) “Everything happens for a reason”
Steve Jobs once said: “You can’t connect the points that are looking forward to: You can only connect them, looking backwards. “
It’s a powerful idea. The one who confesses how much meaning is often found in the back, not at the moment.
But when people say: “Everything happens for a reason,” it rarely bears that depth. Instead, it is often used as difficult situations to brush a brush without really engage in them. It is called a wise and comforting sound, but in reality it can meet as short-term or lazy.
Psychology tells us that our brain is tense to create stories. We are looking for patterns and meanings, even when they don’t.
That’s why this phrase feels good to say. But repeating that it does not sound insight. It sounds like you just like you rely on a common reply, instead of thinking about critical.
If you want to have a real impact on conversations, just don’t fall back on this phrase. Ask questions, listen and realize the complexity of situations, instead of recognizing them with words that actually don’t say much.
4) “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”
The human brain is tense to avoid pain, not to grow automatically. In fact, the double impact of stress and trauma can weaken stability over time, it will not strengthen it.
However, people like to throw “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, as if every difficulty turns into personal growth.
The phrase is called to strengthen, but in reality it ignores the fact that the struggle does not always lead to force.
It’s not all hard, comes with silver cover and otherwise pretending to be touched by you than wise. If someone goes something hard they don’t need a cliché toughness.
They need honesty, support or even just silence, except for an empty expression that exceeds their sense.
5) “That’s what it is”
At first glance, this phrase seems harmless to almost such a verbal shrub. But that’s the problem.
When people say: “That’s what it is,” they usually avoid something. Avoiding deep conversation, avoiding responsibility, avoiding confession of concern, they have no answer.
It’s a phrase that sounds like acceptance, but most of the time is just a way to close the discussion.
Psychology shows that how we are the framework of the framework affecting how we respond to them. “It is that it is that it is” enhanced passivity. It signales that there is no attempt to interrogate, analyze or change things.
But real intelligence does not happen about accepting everything on the face of the face. It’s about being curious to ask better questions and refuses to solve for easy answers.
6) “Good things come to those who wait”
Patience is important, but waiting alone does not guarantee anything.
People use this phrase as if time itself makes a decision in success, happiness or opportunity. But in reality, psychology suggests that the operation is not only patience, which leads to results.
Studies on regulation and achievements show that people who have intentionally steps are far more likely to succeed than those who are simply waiting for things to come.
“Good things waiting for those who wait for them, then it seems wisdom, but it gently encourages passivity.
It assumes that only patience will eventually pay when actually comes good things that prepare, adapt and initiate the initiator.
7) “Live everyday like your last”
If people actually lived every day, no one would pay their bills, to show job or to allow long-term plans.
This phrase is intended for inspiring, but it falls even below the smallest test.
The human motivation causes a balance between living and planning the future. By acting, it seems like it doesn’t exist tomorrow, it is not wisdom. It’s foolishly hottie as an idea.
The real key did not live as if time is running out, but in a way of living, which balances urgency with intention. Instead of repeating this overused expression, a better question can be: Do I spend my time on what really is to me?
8) “Be yourself”
This is a great advice on the surface. Who wouldn’t want to be authentic? But the problem is as follows. “Be yourself,” often used as a catch, all expressions without real guidance, or what does it seem really?
The truth is that we are not only one fixed version of ourselves. Psychology shows that identity is liquid. We adjust, growing and transporting depending on our experience and people around us.
Someone’s “yourself” assuming that they already know who they are when actually self-consciousness, it takes time and effort.
The more useful advice just shouldn’t be yourself to understand yourself. What does you drive you? What keeps you with? What are you ready to change and what are you standing next to?
These are the issues that lead to authenticity, not only repeating a phrase that seems meaningful, but does not really help who actually is.
Bottom line
The language forms how people perceive us. The words we have chosen can or make us sound thought out and original or common and forgotten.
Clichés feels secure because they have said many times before, but that’s why they don’t weigh weight.
Real intelligence is not words that make it deep. It’s about to criticize the word, asking for assumptions and expressing ideas.
Albert Einstein once said: “If you just can’t explain it, you don’t understand good enough.” The same goes for communication. Instead of leaning with oppressed phrases instead, challenge yourself to make your thoughts more accurate and deep.
Next time you catch yourself to Cliché to pause. Ask yourself if there is a simpler, more meaningful way to tell you what you really mean. That small shift can make all the differences on how people perceive your insight and originality.