Positive "Feeler Words" - #Confidence #WordOfTheWeek

Confidence 

There are certain words I call "feeler words" because they evoke a reaction from me. My feeler words may not be the same as yours, but we all have certain words that inspire, empower, give off a positive vibe, or even work like a personal call to action. In 2018 I'd like to share my list of 52 feeler words, how they make me feel and, why they made my list.

Confidence: "A conviction the outcome will be favourable" and "a belief in the certainty of something". 

Positive thinking, confidence and believing something not only can but will happen is powerful stuff. Adding the word "self" to confidence and believing in your ability to make something happen is all about that powerful stuff coming from within yourself and that my friends is empowering. 

Self-Confidence: "A belief in one's own abilities; self-assured." and "A positive belief that in the future one can generally accomplish what one wishes to do." 

"Confidence" ... just the word alone makes me want to stand a bit taller, and hold my head a bit higher. 
When I started my blog I literally had no clue what I was doing, and to a large extent that is still true. I'm not a writer by trade, so putting my work out there for all to see was a big deal. Yet I go forth writing and posting with the belief my efforts will have a favourable outcome, and that in the future I can accomplish what I wish to to do. I believe I can write, and by continuing to write my skills and ability to articulate what I want to say will improve. With each post I write I'm confident what I write about and how I write about it has value. 

When I feel confident ...
I hear my inner voice loudly and clearly say "Don't be distracted by all the buzz and noise around you, just focus on you and what it is you're trying to achieve. Followed by a "Girl you got this!" 

When I think about "confidence" I think commitment, big picture and the playing the long game. 
To have confidence you don't need to always be right, or the best, or never fail. It's about believing in yourself and your abilities when you are challenged, or struggling, overlooked, or undervalued. It's about believing in yourself while facing challenges and setbacks and that in the long-term your abilities and efforts will result in a favourable outcome. Confident people never strike me as getting that way overnight. Their confidence comes from experience, and the effort they put in developing their skills and abilities to achieve their goals, and a favourable outcome.

We can't control everything around us or even how people act towards us, but we can control how we react to situations, and people, and whether we frame it in a positive or negative way. How I frame experiences and situations impacts how I feel, what I do, and my confidence. It's easy to feel down and question your abilities when you only look at what you haven't done, or are afraid to do. Confidence comes from looking at the bigger picture that includes all the things you have learned and all progress and successes as well.   

Just in case you need a little help ... 
Below are links to a few posts with tips on boosting your self-confidence and staying positive.

• Reader's Digest - Tips to Boost Self-Confidence
• Skills You Need.Com - Building Confidence
• Entrepreneur.Com - 10 Things You Can Do to Boost Self-Confidence
• Forbes - 10 Ways to Build Confidence

And just in case you didn't know ... 

"You Got This!"

Yep, just me Cathy thinking out loud about the word Confidence. 

Definitions via The Free Dictionary 

Commonly Misused or Misspelled Words Beginning with the Letter "O" #GrowYourVocab

Words Beginning with the Letter "O" Commonly Misused, Confused or Misspelled

I'm back with yet another list of commonly confused, misused, or misspelled words. This time I focused on words beginning with the letter "O".

Object vs. Subject (use, meaning): The object of a sentence is the noun or pronoun that receives the action that is named by the main verb in the sentence. Object pronouns include me, you, them, or us. The noun that is doing the action in a sentence is the subject. Subject nouns include I, you, we, or they. For instance, "I" is the subject of the sentence: I ate lunch. Here "I" does the eating. "Me: is the object of the sentence: She thanked me. Here "me" is the thing that is thanked. 

Obscure (spelling, meaning): As an adverb means unclear, imperfectly understood or expressed. As a verb it means to conceal or hide something. 

o'clock (spelling): Is an adverb used to describe or indicate the position of the shorter hand on a watch or clock. Six o'clock means the shorter hand is pointed at six.

Onomatopoeia (spelling, meaning): The use of words that imitate or sound like what they are, mean, or are describing. For example rustle, bang, buzz, or hiss.

Opaque (spelling, meaning): Means not transmitting or reflecting light or radiant energy. 

Organize vs. Organise (use, spelling): Both spellings are correct but "organize" is typically the North American spelling, whereas "organise" is more popular in Britain and outside or North America. 

Oscillate (spelling, meaning): Means to move or swing from side to side regularly. 

Ossify (meaning): Means to make rigid or settle into a conventional pattern. 

Ought vs. Aught (use, meaning): Ought is a special kind of auxiliary verb, meaning that it is added to the main verb. This special kind of auxiliary verb is called a modal verb. Modal verbs (may, must, can, ought, shall) express states of possibility, permission, obligation, or advisability. They do not change their form. They are always added to an infinitive verb. Take the sentence: You ought to eat your vegetables. The main verb is the infinitive "to eat", to which the modal verb "ought" is added to convey a sense that eating is an advisable course of action. Aught used as a noun means nothing or zero. Used as a pronoun it can also mean anything or all.

Outrageous vs. Outragous (spelling): Outrageous is always spelled with an "e". It is the adjectival cognate of the verb "to outrage", meaning to provoke anger or indignation, and is used to qualify persons (or their behaviour) as scandalous or contrary to conventional norms of social conduct. 

Overdo vs. Overdue (use, meaning): Overdo is the verb meaning to do something to excess, such as exercise or eat. Overdue is an adjective meaning unpaid, late, or delinquent, such as a bill or a library book.

Oxymoron (spelling, meaning): A rhetorical trope or figure in which contradictory terms are paradoxically conjoined, as in the phrase: "an honest thief". (Tee hee, yes trope will be on the Letter "T" Grow Your Vocab list)

If you haven't already (like that could ever happen), be sure to check out Grow Your Vocab posts brought to you by other letters. Definitions referenced via The Free Dictionary

Yep, just me Cathy thinking out loud about the Letter "O".

Special thanks to my brother/in-house language expert for his insights and help with my Grow Your Vocab posts. If you find parts in the posts that include lots of grammar and academic-like words, yet still manage to be clear and easy to understand they're probably written by, or at the very least improved by his editing skills. He takes my incomprehensible and transforms it into something useful. 

Disclosure: I receive no compensation for my Grow Your Vocab posts. The purpose of these posts is merely to share information I think might be of interest to my readers. 

Slammin' 90's #Slang: Don't like it? Talk to the Hand Cuz the Face Ain't Home!

Some fresh, phat, and mad slang came out of the 90's, much of which I still use. 

Not surprising since the 90's were all that and a bag of chips.

This was a busy decade for me. I got jiggy with it ... TMI? Well it's all good cause it resulted in a wedding. Bought a house, aka my crib, and got a dog ... an actual dog, not dawg. Bought a crib ... an actual crib and looked fat not phat ... because I was pregnant with 2 kids ... don't go there. This was a decade of peaceful simplicity and zen ... NOT! More like you had to laugh or you'd cry chaos, parenting fails and a comedy of errors. Wine, coffee, sarcasm and the F-Bomb were my vices of choice. Personally I think I deserve mad props just for surviving it without going postal. 

Interesting bit of 411: I've noticed a significant difference in term usage by those who survived the decade (parents) and those born in that decade (evil offspring, aka Thing 1 & Thing 2). I for one am unlikely to call anything or anyone a "wangsta" or "ghetto", or use the term "jacked". It's highly unlikely my kids will ever refer to someone or something as being "all that" and are never going to use that term followed by a reference to potato chips. Also never gonna happen: one of them asking someone to "talk to the hand" (the finger maybe, but never the hand). 

My favourites:

• Whatever!: I'm moving on, I don't care what you have to say about it AND no longer want to hear or talk about it. Also there's a good chance I'm annoyed at this point.
• As if: I don't believe you, not true, very unlikely or not going to happen.
• Deal (you'll just have to deal): Too bad you just have to deal with it, move on, get over it or stop over reacting.
• NOT!: Whatever I said before NOT! was not true, in In fact I meant the opposite of what I just said. 
• Not so much: I don't like it, sarcastic response to a statement indicating something, someone or some action is not acceptable or cool.
• Talk to the hand, cuz the face ain't home! or talk to the hand: I don't want to talk to you and/or about this. This conversation is over and I'm not going to discuss it anymore.
• Don't make me or I'm gonna open a can of whoop-ass on you: Self-explanatory.
• Hater or hate on: A hater is the person, hate on is the action of the hater reacting in a negative, jealous, or petty way and openly expressing those feeling about someone or something (usually in regards to someone or something that isn't really their business or concern). Don't be a hater cause if you are you might be called the next term on my list ... just saying lol. 
• Beeotch!: I think this is also self explanatory. If not try saying it out loud a few times.
• My bad. (followed by We good?): Sorry that was my fault, and I take full responsibility for it.
• It's all good: It's fine or alright, I'm not angry about it and there are no hard feelings. 
• You Go! or You Go Girl!: Encouragement to do something and/or praise about taking the intuitive or having the guts to do something out of one's comfort zone. 
• I be stylin': I'm looking good or stylish.

Terms my kids use(d):

• Peace Out: I'm leaving. 
• Sup: What is up or what is happening.
• Aiight: Alright, or that's alright. 
• Wangsta or Wangster (what a wangsta): A wanna be, not authentic, or fake. You think and act like you're cool and have street cred or all "gangsta" but you're not.  
• Ghetto (that's so ghetto): Cheap, lacking taste, showy, gaudy.
• Cool beans: Very cool.
• What up?: What are you up to, or what is happening?
• Jacked (he jacked my, or it was jacked): Taking or stealing something, or something that has been taken or stolen.
• Mad Skills: Excellent ability or extreme skills.
• Nice, Dude (and combined Nice Dude!): Dude is used talking to a friend or buddy. Nice refers to great or amazing. Used together it means something cool, great or awesome in reference to that friend or buddy.
• Props or Mad Props: Kudos or credit for something someone did.
• Shady (that's shady, he's shady and occasionally, "he be shaddy"): Something or someone is not legitimate, not to be trusted, not fair or deceptive.
• You be trippin' (or why you be trippin'?): Getting upset, angry, emotional or over reacting.

Did I miss any of your favourite sayings or slang from the 90's? 

And have you checked out my favourite big time legit 80's slang I still use? 

Yep, I was all like, it's just me Cathy thinking out loud about dope 90's slang that's Da Bomb.

Note: A) I'm not in any way suggesting these terms are politically correct, or advocating their use. And B) these definitions are based on my own understanding and memory of what these terms meant and how they were used in the 90's. So if you don't like them I respectfully ask you to take a chill pill, quit buggin' and quit icing my grill!

Big Time Legit Slang From the 80's I Still Use #TBT #ThrowbackThursday

#TBT

Throwback Thursday

Five Deadly, Decent and Excellent 

Slang Terms From the 80's I Still Use

circa 1980's

Later / Later Gator:

Goodbye

Scarf / Scarf it down: 

eat food very fast

Upchuck: 

barf or throw up

Veg / Veg Out - I'm just going to Veg:

relax or chill out

What's Your Damage? 

what is wrong with you

Yep, just me Cathy thinking about deadly, decent and excellent terms from my teens I use on my teens.