Cursing

[Harmon]

Need a little help here-

In the not so distant future my career will be changing, I need to speak a little less like a carpenter that has struck his finger with the blunt side of his hammer.

Suggestions?

(I am serious, I hope to be working in a hospital within a year and need to stop saying the F word in every other sentence.)

Thanks

 

[Hypersmurf]

Are you able to get the support of friends and family on this one?

If so, ask them to pick you up on it every time you swear without realising it. The bounty of fifty cents per word will give them an incentive to play the game, and you an incentive to think before you speak

-Hyp.

 

[Dog Moon]

Or you could tell them to punch you whenever you swear, if you don't have any money.

Although neither of these methods really work when you're by yourself...

 

[Bront]

Hyp has a good idea.

Also, sometimes it's just the environment you're in. Make a consious effort to not do it, maybe replace the word (Freaking) in your vocab. It's easy to swear when others around you do, and it's easier to quit when others don't.

With many people, a swear isn't what it used to be, because they're used so often by some people, particular children who want to sound like they're tough.

 

[Imruphel]

Many years ago this was a problem for a group of us in a bank I worked in. To get around it, what we agrred was to replace the "f" word with "farm" and to a series of fines for when we slipped. Strangely enough, it worked.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

In college, my rather religious roommate bet me that I couldn't go a whole week without swearing or being a smart-ass. The being a smart-ass part was easy, but to suppress the instinctive curse, I got myself in the habit of saying 'hippopotamus' to myself before speaking out loud. It gave me that split-second to let the brain catch up with my mouth.

Now, after a week, I collected my bet and returned to my sailor-speaking ways, so I don't know if it could have affected a permanent change, but you never know. It's just a habit like any other, so substituting one habit for another might work.

 

[RustyHalo]

This suggestion may strike you as silly, but it works for many people. You can use it in combination with any of the other techniques suggested in this same thread. Another advantage: unlike some of the other suggestions in this thread, this technique works "after the fact" (you slipped up and swore out loud).

Simply wear a thick rubber band around your wrist. Each time you say something profane, snap yourself. The ensuing "ouch" will help re-program your cursing habit.

You may surprise yourself at how quickly you can modify your behavior.

 

[Doctor Bomb]

I SWEAR LIKE A SAILOR (but only at work)

LOL

As a sailor, and native of a town in the great American "Bible Belt" I understand the frustration. It's surprisingly not that hard to retrain, or to switch back and forth depending on the crowd. All of the above methods will work if you actually use them - we used the "curse jar" on my last ship toward the end of the deployment since most of us wanted to go home without offending our families. It was not uncommon for somebody ticked off to drop a dollar (or two) in the jar BEFORE speaking. If I remember correctly, we had something like 73 dollars at the end of the second month, and got ourselves a boatload of candy and soda to stash in the shop for days when we needed to work late or through lunch. Anyone that kept cursing after about the third week was doing it on purpose.

Coincidentally, that "hippopottamus" trick also (usually) works on people that tend to say "uh", "like", "and then" or other brief gap-filling words a lot. It makes them stop long enough to make a sentence in thier head before they start saying the words.

 

[BOZ]

well, ! if you ing want to stop ing saying "" every ing other word, then just ing stop doing it al-ing-ready! !

 

[Dog Moon]

well, ! if you ing want to stop ing saying "" every ing other word, then just ing stop doing it al-ing-ready! !

What he's actually saying is:
well, farm! if you farming want to stop farming saying "farm" every farming other word, then just farming stop doing it al-farming-ready! farm!

See how easy that is? Thanks to Imruphel!