Language use: habitual vs. mindful

Hello all!

Here's 2023, and here I am, with hearty wishes to you for a …

<drum_roll>

…?HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Habitual vs. mindful

Now, wait a minute. Did I just wish you a “happy” new year a moment ago? Indeed, and I totally meant it, you can bet.

However, here’s the thing:?Why?did I choose the word “happy” specifically whereas, in my mind, I really wish not only happiness but also success and prosperity and fulfillment and aspiration and achievement and excitement and enthusiasm and motivation and warmth and comfort and love and joy and peace and progress and …! The list is really endless.

So,?why?did I choose “happy”?

Come to think of it, did I really?choose?that word? Or, did I merely?use?the word because, well, wishing people a “happy” new year is an accepted social convention, an effective shorthand to refer to all those other good things that can be wished, and—last but not the least—a handy, convenient language?habit?

Reconsidering habits

Now, don’t get me wrong. Habits are a very helpful evolutionary mechanism that helps us conserve processing power. After all, if someone has invented the wheel, why should I waste precious processing power to reinvent it, right? Similarly, if someone has done the required thinking and come up with handy phrases in language, why shouldn’t I just habitually?use?and?reuse?phrases as required and be done with it?

That’s a good example and argument—except for this point: Although?reuse?as a habit can conserve processing power when it is applied to avoid?unnecessary?thinking (as in the case of reinventing the wheel), when the same approach is either misapplied or overdone so that habit curbs even?necessary,?valuable, and?original?thinking, habit can then become obsolete, stale, or problematic, and that’s why habits need to be reconsidered from time to time. And language habits are no different, you’ll agree.

“Mot juste”

As we reconsider our own?habitual?use of language and become more?mindful, we’ll likely start realizing that many of the readymade phrases and expressions that we often use unthinkingly do not quite precisely capture the exact idea in our mind that seeks expression. Perhaps in my mind, I would rather wish for 2023 to be “fulfilling” to everyone, rather than merely “happy”—happiness being only one dimension for life to be fulfilling in the times that we live in!

If we are thinking original, new thoughts every day, if we are rejuvenating ourselves and innovating constantly, don’t we also need our language to be alive and agile enough to capture all of that originality as accurately as possible? As the complexity of our thought processes grows and as the richness of our experience—both individual and collective—skyrockets through the 21st?century, shouldn’t our language use also evolve from being habitual and mechanical to being more mindful and intentional so that we can do full justice to every aspect of this grand phenomenon called life!

In 2023, then, let’s constantly strive to become increasingly mindful, careful, and conscious in our language use. Let’s endeavor, every time we use language, be it spoken or written, to find “the exactly right word or phrasing”—“mot juste”—that will capture what’s on our mind as truthfully and as closely as possible. If required, let’s have the courage and conviction to even retire fossilized expressions and usages in language in favor of constructing more authentic, effective, and versatile expressions that keenly reflect the truth and reality of the day, every day.

Note

This, however, is by no means a call to flout time-tested language rules and conventions indiscriminately. On the contrary, it is a compassionate invitation to explore and optimally utilize the possibilities that English (or any language) offers, which cannot happen for as long as we continue to keep playing within the comfort zone of habitually reusing handy, readymade expressions instead of consciously searching for and finding the “mot juste” for every situation or creating original, accurate expressions (even when adhering to basic grammatical rules and usage guidelines and standard language conventions).

What’s YOUR wish?

In this article, we started with a simple new year wish. Then, we discussed the importance of using language more mindfully and the need to explore beyond habitually using readymade expressions. We ended with how we can search for and find the “mot juste” or even create original expressions that do justice to what we have on mind.

Feel free to use the comments section here to register your own, unique, original wishes to the world for 2023 …

… in your own original words!

Beyond the habitual “Happy New Year,”

What’s YOUR wish? Do tell.