Using ‘you’, when you really mean ‘I’. Don’t do it.

There is a lot of power given away in that little slip.

Until I take responsibility for my beliefs, choices, and consequences I won’t be motivated to create a better life. (There… all in I statements!)

Today I want you to practice using I Statements and be extremely conscious of when you hear others not doing it – and you will.  The exercise is to look at what that person (or maybe, you!) is avoiding by not owning the belief, choice, feeling, or situation.

This is foundational to the kind of change we are creating in our lives. Don’t ever again miss an opportunity to own a statement that is your truth or belief. Use the I Statement in conversations and take back the power.

To Do:

In your journal, write a few “You Statements” you either used or heard today and what the speaker might have gotten from not owning the statement for himself/herself.   (Hint: Safety, removal from the consequences, preserve the ego, passing the buck off to ‘you’, attempting to get a ‘buy in’ on an opinion, etc). How would that statement have sounded different if it were spoken with an “I” instead?

Were setting a great base for next week when we’ll redefine a telephone conversation!

Examples from your very own applications for ShowBiz Blueprint

• You just can’t book gigs for that kind of money in this area (I have… at least a dozen times)
• You pick up the phone to call someone and just freeze (Ah… no thank you. I don’t)
• They try to beat you down and you just say, “Screw it – and you take the gig!” (Wow… so much in there that I don’t want to be attached to me!)

See you tomorrow.