Boost Your Emotional Intelligence by Ditching the Word “Interesting”
Each of your everyday conversations is an opportunity to express your thoughts and views. This not only allows others to know who you are, but it also gives you the opportunity to learn a lot about yourself. The word “interesting” is probably holding back.
Your friend finishes describing what he likes, and you nod your head and continue, “This is interesting.” Sounds okay, right? But, as Muse’s Alice Kalisch explains, your attempt to be neutral or polite doesn’t affect the conversation or your own predictable perspective. In fact, the word “interesting” has become almost meaningless and turned into a somewhat less offensive way of saying that you don’t care what someone said, but you admit what they said. Kalish invites you to abandon this word entirely:
The reason is simple: I like honesty. Honesty is productive – it shows that you really listened to someone and then took the time to think about what they said in order to come up with a comprehensive and helpful response.
The next time your friend starts talking about his passion or something else, you will have to say what you really think. This will help you better tune in to your emotions and, in general, will allow you to interact more productively with each other. So, when it’s your turn to speak, don’t just say something interesting, but why and how it interests you.
This word doesn’t make sense – but you’ve probably already used it today | Muse