Expressing yourself precisely minimises misunderstandings and fosters understanding (in every way). There are some technical terms on this website (and beyond) not everyone knows or which are often used incorrectly. This little encyclopedia contains important psychic, entrepreneurial and nature-related terms which you will need for your personal-entrepreneurial development.
It also gives you a good guide which helps a) people searching for help to distinguish true professionals from beginners and dabblers and also helps b) service providers to present themselves as experts who actually know what they’re talking about 😉
Enjoy & good luck 😊
Self-efficacy describes how convinced I am that I can achieve set goals.
I love it!
It’s not about efficiency or the capability to reach set goals at all, but how convinced I am that I am able to do something. How convinced I am that I am able to do something.
It’s ingenious as it is completely independent from self-worth.
Yes, it’s extremely closely related to self-trust and -scurity because you actually have to be brave enough to approach something. But it goes so much deeper and starts loooooooong before the first physical action - namely by engaging with the idea of establish a strong bond with something.
Developing dreams and sticking with them - and nobody on earth can talk me out of them!
“Yes, I can” is the correct answer here.
This generates so much power that you face even the biggest fears and other challenges - after all, you built up huge dreams.
There's no mistaking between "self-awareness" and "self-security" in English, or at least amongst native English speakers. For whatever reason, most Germans always confuse "confidence" with "self-consciousness" and it's driving me crazy!!! Even sports commentators do this unfathomable mistake... However, I'll leave this mark to compliment the Germans who are interested in reading this in English and would otherwise maybe wonder why this part is missing.
Self-trust means trusting yourself.
Building up trust needs experience. Depending if this was fostered, suppressed or ignored in our childhood & youth, we trust us - and therefore others - more or less. And it also depends on what we do (not) approach, of course.
Hence, self-trust is directly linked to foreign trust as other people have a significantly bigger impact here than at self-consciousness, for example, which you can very well develop by yourself.
Self-trust is closely related to self-security or “confidence” (see self-consciousness). When we trust our self to do something and are successful at its execution, self-security develops through this (and more) experience (and therefore foreign security).
The biggest difference between self-trust and self-security is this:
In order to build up trust you have to intentionally and consciously work on and with your psyche - for example, when close ones do (not) encourage us to jump off the 10 m (33 ft) diving platform. It needs convincing to overcome our doubts and fears.
But when we built up enough faith (in us), mastered the first hurdles and successfully jumped off several times more, somewhere along the road it will be so naturally for us that we do no longer think about it anymore. Everything worksmore or less automatically and we are absolutely certain - then, self-security developed.
P.S. I know that word “confidence” is extremely popular with native English speakers, esp. in the USA, and yes, it indeed sounds supercool. As usual in English, it transports a lot of feeling. But it’s not very precise. If I’m not mistaken, it actually is the combination of self-security and self-trust. If you want to consciously and professionally work with and on (your) psyche, I highly recommend using the more precise scientific terms “self-trust” and self-security” / “self-certainty” 😉
The expression “professionalism” is often used incorrectly.
Do you, too, know those who mainly consider business-related activities which are closely linked to finance as ”professional”? Do you also always roll your eyes when you read or, even worse, hear that?
These terms are used synonymously especially for psychic help which can have tremendous consequences as external help from personality coaches in particular is anything but professional most of the time.
And you probably have already made bad experiences with so-called “professionals” in the corporate world or as a customer, so you very likely know the difference.
Please differentiate between “external help” vs. “professional help” from now on.
Distinguishing “external (psychic) help” and “external help” is not only more precise, but has a massive advantage for you personally:
You automatically imply that the ones potentially helping you are professionals if you speak of “professional help” - and will be utterly disappointed due to these expectations if you commit to a scammer or dabbler. If you speak of “external help” instead, it just is an uncomfortable experience and you remain open for the good or better ones 😉
Personality Coaching is coaching which treats the personality of people.
“Personality coaching” is an umbrella term which can and should* be used as a standardized technical term. Personality coaching contains the following aspects:
Especially important to me is the reference to classic psychotherapies as I’m a huge fan of these powerful tools:
Therefore, personality coaching and psychotherapies complement each other beautifully and should also be regarded and executed as such.
* I came up with this ingenious creation in December 2022 after thinking, feeling and struggling for MONTHS, trying to find a term which perfectly describes what coaches working on the psyche of other people are doing without including psychotherapists and being too generic.
A personal coach is a coach who coaches personally, that means from person to person.
It can take place with a single person (“1:1 coaching”) or with several people (group sessions) at the same time.
Personal coaches have been equated with fitness coaches and - especially important for us - personality coaches for a very long time and still are today (as of 2023) by many people. It’s wrong! There are tax coaches, video coaches, cooking coaches, dance coaches and many more.
I developed the term “personality coach” to finally put some clarity to the world of coaches who treat the psyche of other people.
Yes, a personality coach should always be a personal coach - but a personal coach can also coach in many other areas than personality 😉
A personal trainer is a trainer who trains personally. The term does not yet relate to a topic!
The exact same drama as with personal coach here, as only few people know what training (and coaching) actually is - even in native English-speaking countries (USA, UK etc.) where these terms come from. You’ll find more comprehensive info about the difference between training and coaching in the term “Coaching vs. Training”.
Just like coaching, training, too, only describes a process and therefore needs an addition which concretizes what exactly is trained.
Hence, a “personal trainer” is NOT a fitness trainer, dammit!!!
A lot of people use the terms “coaching” and “training” wrongly because they don’t understand their meaning and therefore differences.
Coaching is the development of potential of people.
Training is the implementation of capabilities.
Rule #1: Both need an ADDITION to precisely illustrate what exactly is coached or trained - yes, they are THAT general (which is good).
Rule #2: Both are PROCESSES but their approach differs vastly:
Rule #3: Their boundaries overlap more often than with other approaches. For example:
Psychoanalysis is the analysis of psyche. It’s that simple 😁
But the term is also used for the so-called psychotherapeutic procedure which goes back to Sigmund Freud. In this regard, it’s not as timely anymore as I explain in its according entry.
Most people say “psychological” even though they actually mean “psychic”.
These two terms are wrongly used synonymously mainly in everyday language. But they do have different meanings and therefore their particular application.
The ancient Greek word λογία (logia) means "lesson" or "science" of something. Which means that if you see a term with the ending "-logy" you know, at least by now, that it's about the research of a topic, for example the research of life (biology), the human body (physiology), the history of words (etymology), the weather (meteorology) or of the relationships of life and its outer environment (ecology).
“Psychology” or “psychological”, respectively, means that something relates to the scientific aspect of psyche.
“Psychic”, on the other hand, means that something relates to psyche itself.
We have psychic disorders, we feel bad / good psychic* and we are psychic active if we think or feel. We are psychologically active if we reflect or analyse our thinking and feeling, i.e. dealing consciously and factually with (our) psyche.
* “psychic” sounds sooo weird, if not wrong, doesn’t it!? Considering it derives from a regular adjective which is transformed into an adverb by adding “-ly” at the end, it makes zero sense not to do so here, too… were they out of stock of “-ly” when they came up with “psychic”?
The worst part is that it favours you to say "feeling good / bad mentally" which completely washes out the precision power of technical terminology! It should be called “feeling good / bad psychically”. Yes, “mentally” transports more feelings (typical for English), but if you want to solve issues, you want it as clear and precise as possible!
And that’s why I will use the word “psychically” from now on and encourage you to do the same, even if it’s grammatically wrong.
AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, I’m FREA-king OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The beautiful Old Greek word θεραπεία (therapeia) means “treatment”, “caretaking” or “healing”. Therefore, the term “therapy” refers to ANY form of treatment and only says that somebody is treated AT ALL.
I already spouted off about the atrocity that for whatever reason most people automatically mean psychotherapywhen they say "therapy". That’s WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, DAMMIT (and I thought I already calmed down… 😁).
A therapy is a TREATMENT.
Which KIND of treatment is meant, do we determine by an additional word. For example, occupational therapy. Or chemotherapy. Or physiotherapy. And if you mean the treatment of psyche, you say psychotherapy.
PSYCHO-therapy, alright!!!
Thank you.
Actually, it should rightly read “psychological psychotherapist vs. psychiatrist” because psychiatrists, too, are psychotherapists.
The difference is that a psychiatrist makes a medical basic education where the focus is on the human body while a psychological psychotherapist studies psychology.
That’s why psychological psychotherapists are not allowed to prescribe pharmaceutics (psychotropic drugs) but psychiatrists are.
It’s also the reason why psychological psychotherapists usually don’t like to be called “doctor” 😉
Many people talk of “psychologists” when they mean psychotherapists. ZONK (it’s SO annoying)!!!
The Old Greek word λογία (logia) still means “science” of something (see “psychological vs. psychic”). Therefore, a psychologist a person who scientifically deals with psyche, so he’s a researcher.
Yes, psychotherapists (fortunately) go through a classically scientific education, so every psychotherapist is a psychologist, too. Note, “too”:
A psychotherapist may indeed need a scientifically based understanding of human psyche but mainly uses it as a baseline of his PRACTICAL activities. Hence, it’s “only” a means to the end - his main subject matter are patients.
Psychologists explore psyche. Here, psyche itself is the subject matter or aim. Thus, psychology provides the fundamentals for psychotherapy. But psychology caters to soooo much more than just psychotherapy, e.g. engineering psychology or organizational psychology.
The boundaries between practice and research intersect, of course: psychotherapies are an object of research as well as they are valuable tools with which you can collect data. However, everybody has their clear focus here, too: “manually” practicing psychotherapists (“psychotherapeutic psychologists”) collect data which researching psychologists (“scientific psychologists”) analyze theoretically.
Depending on the focus of a psychologist he is active in either science (“psychologist”) or treatment (“psychotherapist”).
Is also called „analytical psychotherapy” and is my term of the psychotherapeutic procedure psychoanalysis - but with a modern twist 😉
Mankind has developed after 100 years (as of 2023) when the godfather of psychoanalysis - Sigmund Freud - coined this term as a psychotherapeutic procedure. I feel and see that the term “psychoanalysis” is no longer sufficient and up to date solely for a psychotherapeutic procedure.
Today, there are countless psychoanalysts who work in science and hove absolutely nothing to do with psychotherapies (treatment of psyche with the goal of healing psychic disorders). And if you agonise about your neighbour or mother once again, you do nothing else but analysing their and your own psyche (and sometimes also that of animals). So, you’re psychoanalytically active.
In short, a psychoanalyst is a person who analyses psyche. Psychoanalysis means analysing psyche.
Our friend Freud and his mighty heritage should of course remain, we can easily provide this much respect. But we now differentiate it by adding the component of psychotherapy which is sooo much more precisely :)
And it’s also more beautiful as we fiiiiiiiiinally have a technical term which showcases the close relationship with depth depth psychological psychotherapy and wonderfully separates these profound psychotherapies from behavior therapies (on whose precision we should also work on, do I just realize… but this is a task for another time 😁).
There are psychologists who also speak of “analytical psychotherapy” which is totally fine and factually correct as it includes everything you need for a sophisticated differentiation. However, the primordial term “psychoanalysis” is torn apart thereby which is a pity, I find, and I therefore stick to “psychoanalytical psychotherapy”. out of respect towards our ancestors.
Yes, the term becomes longer to read and speak out this way - but that’s a wonderful reflection of this decelerating psychotherapeutic procedure. And if you speak out “psychoanalytical psychotherapy” a couple of times and in context, particularly, you will recognize how amazingly cool it actually sounds 😉
The beautiful metaphor of the Iceberg Model is an essential concept of the Communication Theory of interhuman communication which especially attracts me as a geographer by heart. The term was mainly coined by Paul Watzlawick but its origin dates far more back, albeit not being completely clear where and how, at least in a psychological context.
An iceberg can be separated into a visual part and an invisible part which lies underwater. The visible part makes up about 10% of an iceberg, the underlying part constitutes 90%. The shape of an iceberg resembles a simplified pyramid where only the tip is visible.
According to the Iceberg Model, the visible part of an iceberg is called “content aspect” which contains everything one can rationally measure, e.g. times, data, facts. As that’s quite obvious, most people can easily grasp this information.
The “invisible” part of an iceberg (is much more obvious than most people think, just not from a superficial or distant perspective - not only from a geographical viewpoint) is called “relationship aspect” in the Iceberg Model. Everything which is not as easily comprehensive like feelings, mood, relationships, personality traits, longings etc. belong here. A lot of people struggle dealing with these areas of life and rather choose to stick with superficial topics…
Only to fall behind because the relationship aspect has a much bigger impact on (inter) human being and behavior. In the end, it’s the much bigger part of our personality. And it’s the area where two icebergs touch each other at first 😉
Most people understand “language” as the verbal exchange of information through words. But language is so much more as the Iceberg Model illustrates.
Language can be divided into verbal and nonverbal communication.
Verbal communication is the exchange of words. This also applies to human cultures who communicate with clicks. Sounds which are produced with the mouth or other body parts of other animals like whales or birds belong here, too (it doesn’t matter that we don’t understand their language).
Note, that the information between lines or words, respectively, transport verbal messages, too.
Nonverbal communication is body language. Facial expressions, gestures, posture or the present or absence itself convey something from which you can derive information in regard to its context.
Nonverbal communication mostly contains more information than verbal language but is harder to read (just like reading “between the lines”). And in combination, spoken words can actually convey very contradicting information with its associated body language, e.g. when I frown and say that I’m feeling great.
I regularly use the word “metabolize” in a non-physical but psychic context. I know this word (verb) doesn’t exist in English (yet), but we’ll use it anyway for good reason. You can equate it to “implement”, “integrate” or internalize” but it is sooo much more emotional and visual.
It’s also self-explanatory as we all know what metabolism is. But transferring this predominantly physical term to psyche is ingenious.
Metabolism is the interaction of different entities which assimilate something
Physically, it starts by taking in food which is then processed so that its components can be distributed. If these components become an integral part of our body, they were metabolized.
Psychic food is experience we make and somehow process. Everything we take in from them, becomes an integralpart of our psyche.
Metabolizing therefore means that something becomes a part of us - so far that it’s automated and we do no longer think or feel about it anymore.
The ingenuity is that this term implies the psychic AND physical processing even in a psychic context and therefore also connects psyche & body verbally. After all, body & soul are inevitably intertwined with each other anyhow.
Implementing, on the other hand, is the intentional, conscious process to integrate something. It indeed is closely related to metabolizing but mainly refers to the attempt, e.g. at trainings where employees try to learn new methods from a trainer.
Psychosomatic medicine illustrates the connection and interactions between psyche and body (Old Greek for psyché = "soul" + soma = "body").
Body and psyche need and influence each other like day & night, hero & villain, low & high tide, ♀︎ & ♂︎ or Yin & Yang. Our body provides margin for our psyche which needs a medium for its effects. But without the data processing center brain (psyche) a body doesn't even know what to do.
Therefore, body and soul are inseparably intertwined with each other. We strongly influence our body with our psyche which in turn becomes a reflection of our soul.
The beauty of it is that we can work a lot more direct and creative with our psyche than with our body (the information exchange of nerve cells through electric stimuli is simply so much quicker than the mainly chemically based information exchange of other body cells which are filled with water, other liquids and substances). Consequently, we also shape our own physical (un-) fortune much more comprehensive with our psyche than with physical commitment alone.
Therefore, psychic work should be as natural as moving, eating or drinking healthy.
Unfortunately, especially the western medicine unlearned and forgot this strong correlation. For at least decades the human body has now been regarded and treated like a machine, which is not only inhumane but also pretty stupid and not very sustainable for our individual health and that of our society.
Cognition derives from the Latin word cognoscere and means "realise" or "experience" and basically refers to all psychic processes and structures which are linked to thinking in some form or another: memorising (short and long term memory), perception, attention or language (including nonverbal communication) are scientific topics which examine the processing and transformation of information.
You can even examine emotions from this perspective as they, too, are a result of the communication of information through hormones and other transmitters induced by thought processes.
Cognition for humans (and other animals) is what a processor (mainly CPU) is for technical devices like desktop pc's or laptops where it's also all about data or facts, respectively.
An oracle is a metaphorical compass which playfully helps you navigate through live and become stronger (gain self-security etc.).
The word “oracle” derives from the Latin word oraculum (“god speech”, “speech site”) to orare (“speaking”, “pray”) and, according to Wikipedia (Germany), describes “a transcendental manifestation gained with the help of a ritual or medium which facilitates answering questions concerning future or decisions”.
Sounds pretty mystical if not eerie, doesn’t it? Well, I see it a lot more casual, but the objective is the same:
An oracle is an absent entity which you either ask for advice or which shows itself in the form of signs.
Usually, it’s humans, but it can also be other living beings, abiotic things or mythical creatures to which you have a positive, close relationship. This results in two conclusions:
So, if something moves me right now, I ask myself how she or he may react or what my oracle would say in that very situation. That’s it. It’s that simple. You don’t need a ritual or any mystical action / environment for it to work as you can easily activate it yourself - anytime. And if you progress, it someday is super normal and natural.
Oracles also appear by themselves: fears, natural phenomenon, encounters or strong experiences which connect you with close relatives (incl. animals) are examples thereof. They are the medium through which your oracle tells you how you should assess the thought, feeling or action you just had or made.
Therefore, an oracle also encourages you to open up your mind and explore the world (which has SO much to offer ;-)
In any way, it is a strong and beautifully playful spiritual enrichment of your life =)
P.S. I somehow feel that “oracle” doesn’t nearly sound as cool and fatually precise in English as it does in German (“Orakel”) but I’ll leave it at that until I come up with a better idea. If you are more involved in the culture of native English speakers, please let me know of alternatives. Thank you =)
Critique means critically dealing with or looking into a subject. That means differentiated, thoroughly or profoundly examining a topic in order to learn or achieve as much as possible.
So, the term “critique” has a NEUTRAL value!!
Unfortunately, using “critique” synonymously with negative critique crept into many societies. But that’s wrong and creates some of the biggest conflicts of verbal communication ever. I used to use it the same way but no longer support this nonsense. After all, when I talk or write about “critique” here (or somewhere else), I never mean it judgmental. And I suggest you do the same.
If critique is evaluative and consequently has a prefix, I do communicate that by using “positive critique” or “negative critique”.
Thank you.
The marketing term or “concept” unique selling point or proposition is not as new for most native English speakers as for people from cultures or countries like Germany where marketing is not as developed as in the USA, for example. Albeit, we do have a much more beautiful word in German which would literally translate to “defining feature” and does not limit a point to selling (how poor is that!).
However, USPs mainly refer to traits of a company or areas of a company which are unique and ultimately differentiate this (area of a) company from the majority. They can relate to businesses, people, activities, products, services, a combination of those and many more elements.
The more conscious and purposefully you deal with USPs, the bigger your competitive advantage. At least that’s what many people hope who make a science and even an own business out of it (see “branding”).
There is less confusion about these terms in native English land than German speaking countries. Nevertheless, a lot of people and even businesses (who should know and do better) commonly make big mistakes there, too, so let's talk about it and pay some respect.
What is the Internet?
The internet is a worldwide network of PCs and other computers, i.e. technical devices (hardware). What we can perceive and work on as a page is a document (software) which is written in a specific language (hypertext) and transferred between multiple computers via different protocols (keys).
In conclusion, there is no such thing as an “internet page” as a page - like this one here - is always a software product. I don’t see this term often, but I’ll still add it for those who are more interested in this and wonder why sooooo many Germans regularly speak of an “Internetseite”.
What is the World Wide Web?
The worldwide network of different addressable documents (pages) is called World Wide Web. It's a system which consists of many different web pages.
A webpage is a single page like the main page, product pages, pages about me, us or the team, services and also terms & conditions or privacy policy. Each of those is one or contains more webpages - the whole construct of several webpages is NOT a webpage! A book, too, is a bit more than just a sheet of paper, right.
What is a Website?
Most native English speakers and those regularly surrounded by them know what a "site" is which you can also find in construction. This allows for the great term "website" which says it all and is used more often and correct than in German speaking countries. BUT:
What is a Homepage - and where do you feel at home?
There are still a lot of people out there who use the term “homepage” for a website which is technically wrong as a homepage obviously refers to a single webpage only.
Most native English-speaking people and their businesses actually do use “homepage” for a single specific page, namely the first page of a website. The webpage where you mostly start. At least, this is technically correct, but I still have a problem with it. To me, that's not enough. I want and hope that my visitors feel right at home EVERYWHERE on this website and not only on the first page (albeit, it maybe that we should firstly find out if you at least have a home and therefore know how that is and if so if a home is something positive or negative for you and, according to that, if you need a home at all in order to live a happy life but we'll do that somewhere else and at rest).
That's why my introductive first or main page doesn't welcome you with "Home" but with "Start". I know, it looks pretty sharp and doesn't feel as comfy as grandma's pie but technically, it's more correct and precise and in this case, that's more important to me. You'll get the warm and soft spirit with, between and behind the lines here.
How do you go into the Internet?
The biggest, and most annoying thing I often hear English natives say is the phrase of "going in the internet". No, you're NOT going into tiny cables buried deep into the ground traveling unfathomable distances with even more staggering speeds between different PCs!!! You might want to take a sneak peek at what your neighbor is up to at night but your body is NOT made for this insane kind of travel. Not yet and that's a good thing because it's a lot easier and beneficial to overcome your insecurity and someday go over and just say "hi" and offer help. Geez!
So, what's the alternative? There hardly is one :( The correct way would be to say "going in the World Wide Web"but I even see native English speakers struggle with wrestling whopping WWWs... let Germans try this who even struggle with "th" :D
But the struggle is real and as much as I try to express myself as precise as possible, always saying "going in the World Wide Web" is tedious, to be honest. And it doesn't sound good either.
The best alternative I have for now is to say "going online" and I understand that and why it's a lot easier to speak out for native English speakers than for most Germans, if not most non-native English speakers because it requires a different structure of your sentence this way.
However, I will not give up and someday will come up with a simple, yet elegant and perfectly adequate solution - just like I did with "personality coaching" =)
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