Word-Of-the-Week #2028: Conversation
April 23, 2026 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #2028: Conversation
Conversation – the exchange of ideas, feelings, thoughts, and opinions.
How good are you at being an active listener? Have you ever made someone uncomfortable because you “overshared” information?
This week features the last half of, “11 Basic Manners That For Some Reason People Today Didn’t Learn Or Don’t Care About” Zayda Slabbekoorn at YourTango.com
To Recap:
- Respecting your elders
- Saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’
- Not using a phone during a conversation
- Being respectful of shared space
- Saying ‘excuse me’
- Not interrupting
While interruptions and fast-paced conversations can sometimes feel friendlier in certain social situations, according to a Stanford study, most of the time, when we’re cut off by someone seeking attention in a conversation, we feel invalidated and annoyed.
It sabotages the flow of conversations and often rewards the most overconfident, loud people, as their voices are most prioritized. While screens and a desire for instant gratification are shifting social manners to some extent, because many younger generations struggle with basic social manners and etiquette from a lack of practice, it’s not surprising that this is one of the norms that’s less prominent in our interactions.
- Not one-upping in conversations
Status drives our modern culture, whether it’s defined by material things, money, or time. Many people have been socialized into seeking and prioritizing status above all else.
So, it’s not surprising that basic manners like humility in conversations are slowly disappearing. Whether it’s one-upping people sharing their success in conversations or bragging about everything from jobs to money, many people’s desire to feel valued and superior overlooks their care for basic humility.
- Returning shopping carts
While the tendency to return shopping carts at the grocery store has become some kind of unspoken social experiment, the truth is that it’s actually a sign of respect and decency. If you leave your cart in the middle of the parking lot, it doesn’t float to the designated area on its own. You’re essentially making someone else’s life harder for a minute of comfort.
It’s a selfish mentality that many people are adopting in all aspects of life, and is one of the basic manners that for some reason people today didn’t learn or don’t care about. It’s no wonder the etiquette people used to live by is starting to become less common and cared for.
- Not oversharing
While a few decades ago, kids and young people were taught to value privacy around taboo topics, personal issues, and vulnerabilities at home, the digital landscape today has turned that expectation on its head. Now, everyone has full access to overshare and seek attention from their phones, and it’s not shocking that this tendency has changed the way we interact with others.
Especially when so many people are lacking interaction and connection, this tendency to overshare, no matter how misguided it may be, allows people to seek a misleading version of vulnerability with others. They feel “seen” in some way and connected, even if oversharing ends up making people feel uncomfortable and emotionally burdened right from the start.
- Listening instead of waiting to talk
Our modern “age of selfishness” is incredibly nuanced and manifests in small ways across every aspect of our lives, but in conversations, it often urges us to seek the spotlight. Whether it’s bragging about our goals and accomplishments, interrupting someone while they’re speaking, or trading true active listening for a pause while you’re waiting to speak, our selfish motives are harming conversations.
While it might seem like a subtle, harmless shift, active listening makes people feel valued in conversations, but being with someone who’s only waiting to speak can feel like a competition. The art of simply supporting and letting someone else speak is a lost cause in many spaces, and is ironically sabotaging connection in a time when we need it most.
- Not canceling at the last minute
Our culture teaches young people to always put their comfort first, whether it’s at the hands of overbearing parents or a digital landscape that offers them immediate comfort and distraction when they’re feeling uncomfortable. So, when they’re not feeling excited or interested in something, “quitting” is their natural reflex.
Even in close-knit relationships, canceling at the last minute and trying to justify their disrespect as self-empowerment and “protecting their peace” is their new normal. However, it’s pushing people apart and making people feel isolated. Not everything has to feel personally rewarding or comfortable for it to be important. That realization could be the barrier many people face that’s keeping them from truly showing up for the people they care about.
This week’s focus is on conversation. How good are you at listening and not interrupting when others are sharing? Is it hard for you to let another person have the “limelight” and not compare your accomplishments? And for manners, how do you rate on the shopping carts? Are you like me and offer to take the cart for the person who just finished unloading it?
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Word-Of-the-Week #2027: Manners
April 16, 2026 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #2027: Manners
Manners – the socially acceptable way of behaving.
How often do you say “Please” and “Thank You?” Or say “Excuse Me?” Do you have a healthy respect for your elders?
This week features the first half of, “11 Basic Manners That For Some Reason People Today Didn’t Learn Or Don’t Care About” Zayda Slabbekoorn at YourTango.com
In our often status-driven, convenience-oriented, selfish modern society, many people are noticing a lack of basic manners that for some reason people today didn’t learn or don’t care about. And it reveals quite a lot about not only their upbringing, but who they are as a person.
- Respecting your elders
In theory, respecting your elders and people with life experiences that you lack is a great idea. However, many younger people today are breaking down this norm in practice. Respect is a two-way street, and young people being intentional about mental health and boundaries push back against the idea that they should have to tolerate misbehavior and offer respect to someone who mistreats them.
We could all use a little more grace and love in all of our interactions, and while that doesn’t mean tolerating someone toxic, it could mean being willing to offer respect and create space in your best interest.
- Saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’
While it seems like the most basic, easy piece of etiquette for older generations to follow, a study from Social Psychology Quarterly found that the number of people regularly using “please” and “thank you” in conversations is steadily decreasing. Whether it’s rising narcissism in our status-driven society or a general aura of entitlement, people don’t seem to care about this basic level of consideration for others anymore.
It’s unfortunate, especially because so many people are struggling with chronic loneliness today, that they’re missing out on chances to connect and respect people, even strangers. It’s these kinds of respectful, empathetic interactions with people that truly boost our well-being and happiness, and a lack of manners is slowly sabotaging our ability to show up in them well.
- Not using a phone during a conversation
According to a study from Scientific Reports, the mere presence of a phone during a conversation or interaction can sabotage attention and concentration between people. So, if someone’s actively using it or getting distracted by notifications and scrolling, there’s an added layer of irritation and disconnection that ruins good interactions.
It’s not only disrespectful, but it can encourage people to feel invalidated and unseen when the person they’re trying to connect with is more interested in their phone. However, in our modern culture, where so much of our lives and identities are intertwined with our cell phones, it’s not surprising that these are basic manners that for some reason people today didn’t learn or don’t care about.
- Being respectful of shared space
Social awareness is often defined by an ability to read a room and notice people’s energy, but it also encompasses a whole list of social manners, like being respectful of someone’s personal space, which is incredibly important for offering respect.
From respecting people’s physical boundaries to walking at a comfortable pace, noticing people, and even cleaning up after themselves in public spaces, for some reason, many people today are overlooking the importance of care for strangers and their neighbors.
Especially when so many public “third spaces” are becoming inaccessible for most, taking care of the ones we have left with decency and respect is essential, and yet, it’s becoming increasingly uncommon.
- Saying ‘excuse me’
Especially when many young people and children learn manners from independent practice out in the world, in addition to modeled behavior from their parents, it’s not surprising that basic things like saying “excuse me” when passing someone are slowly disappearing.
With so many kids spending most of their time behind a screen, with an overbearing parent and at home, they’re missing out on opportunities to practice social interactions and manners into adulthood. They’re used to protecting their comfort at home or having a parent lead these interactions when they are in public, but when they’re on their own, they’re subconsciously operating in a more selfish, unempathetic way.
This week’s focus is on your manners. And the Golden Rule comes to mind as I was taught at a very early age to treat people the way I wanted to be treated! How respectful are you in shared spaces? How often do you say “hello” and “goodbye” to the people you worker with? Can you have a conversation without the distraction of your cell phone?
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Word-Of-the-Week #2026: Doubts
April 9, 2026 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #2026: Doubts
WOW Word-Of-the-Week #2026
Doubts – feelings of uncertainty or impossibility.
Haae you ever doubted your worthiness? Are you fearing to attempt – or to finish – something because you’re afraid your project won’t be perfect?
This week features another great WOW from Sam Horn.
ANECDOTE
“A woman reached out to me last week for advice.
With tears in her voice, she confessed she’d been working on her book for a year.
Well, working on it in name only. Mostly, what she’d been doing was doubting.
Doubting she could write something people would want to read. Doubting everything she said. Doubting her worthiness. Doubting she’d ever finish.
I told her, “Belief costs nothing. Doubts cost everything.”
Doubts never got anything done. In fact, Shakespeare said, “Our doubts are TRAITORS and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.”
Are you fearing to attempt – or to finish – something because you’re afraid your project won’t be perfect?
Spoiler alert, it won’t be… But if what you’re creating resonates with even a few people, it’s worth it.
If what you have to say or share could help someone be a better parent, person, or partner… Then not only do you have the right to get it out into the world, you have a responsibility to get it out into the world.
Your work doesn’t do anyone any good sitting in your head or on your laptop.
Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Believe in the beauty of your dream.”
Today, receive, honor, and act on your creativity and agency. Kick those traitorous doubts to the curb.
Believe that what you have to say and share will make a difference, and then get out of your own way and get to work.
You’ll never be sorry you completed and contributed your unique work to the world, you’ll only be sorry you didn’t do it… sooner.
ACTION
- What have you been holding back on sharing with the world? What do you want to contribute? There’s no barrier to entry except your lack of belief.
- What is one thing you can do TODAY to move one step closer to getting your project out of your head and into the world where it can make a difference?
This week’s focus is on not having doubts. Do you believe that you can achieve your dreams? Do you believe that what you have to say or share can make a difference?
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Word-Of-the-Week #2025: Self Centered
April 2, 2026 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #2025: Self Centered
Self Centered – believing that the chief motives of human action are derived from love of self.
Do you believe that it’s important to love yourself? Have you taken the time to find out what you want out of your life and your relationships? Have you found that you have more energy to help others when you have taken time for yourself?
This week I am re-running a WOW from 20 years ago. It felt like a great follow up to last weeks’ WOW on Choices.
No Same Day Service
Several years ago, my husband at the time, and I were planning a weekend trip to a beach house in Rosarito, Mexico. I had made a list that consisted of 42,000 things to do before this well-deserved vacation. I knew quite well that I would never have enough time to finish everything. But gosh, I am a positive thinker and I knew that I could at least try. At 7:30 a.m., while I was cooking breakfast and packing the food we were taking with us, my husband asked casually, Hey honey, do you think you could change the oil in the truck before we go?’
Yikes! My entire day was planned the night before and he was asking me now? Why couldn’t HE do it? I didn’t have time to change the oil! He had to be kidding. Didn’t he realize that I was already max’d out? How many times has something like this happened to you? How many times has someone asked you to do something at the last minute and it totally throws off your day? How many times has someone’s lack of planning created a crisis that necessitated you dropping everything to accommodate them?
Unfortunately, it happens all too often. For whatever reason, I decided that I wasn’t going to do that anymore. I don’t know where they came from, but these fantastic words popped out of my mouth, “No same day service.” I decided that if anyone, my husband included, wanted me to do anything for them that they would have to ask prior to the day they wanted it done. You can imagine my husband’s response! He had trained me to drop everything for him and now I was trying to change that. It was time to be retrained!
So the next time a co-worker asks yet again, “Will you cover for me while I take a long lunch?” Or your husband asks, “Honey, will you iron my shirt?” as you are walking out the door to go to work. Or your child asks you five minutes before they have to catch the bus for school, “Mom, I need a sack lunch for the field trip today.” will you say, “No Same Day Service.” Or here’s another idea, announce this to your family, friends, and co-workers before you are faced with yet again another last minute crisis!
This week I want you to focus on being self-centered. Can you see how adopting “No Same Day Service” will reduce your level of stress and unhappiness as well? How would it feel to have that weight lifted? Are you willing to create a sense of balance by taking one step back and taking care of your “self?”
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