Often we say “I feel” when we really mean to say “I think”. This weakens our messages. Whenever we start a sentence with “I feel…”, the next word must be an actual feeling (fear, hurt, anger, sadness, joy) in order for the sentence to carry weight. Any other word dilutes the meaning. For example, when we say, “I feel like that’s a bad idea”, what we really mean to say is, “I feel scared about that idea, it seems bad.” or simply, “I think that’s a bad idea”. When we state our actual feelings they are just as powerful as stating our thoughts. But we have to consciously clean up our language to increase our influence.