The Menace of 'Just'

One word can quietly shape the way we see ourselves.

Take just.

It ranks as the 51st most-used word in the English language, higher than good.

Think about how many times, even just today, you’ve heard it… said it… or more quietly, thought it.

At first glance, it’s harmless.

A word with many meanings.

Sometimes it means fair, precise, recent.

But that’s not the version most of us live with.

More often, just shows up as a quiet act of self-erasure. A word that shrinks what matters.

“I’m just tired.”

“It was just a feeling.”

“I just had an idea.”

We all know that just.

It means only. Not enough. Nothing to see here.

It’s subtle, but it’s everywhere. A reflex in our thinking. And it often comes from the person closest to home: ourselves.

Author of Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig wrote,

“When you are trained to despise ‘just what you like,’ of course, you become a much more obedient servant of others—a good slave... Then the System loves you.”

In therapy, I hear just used to disown what’s most alive in someone. A dream, dismissed. A gut feeling, pushed aside. A truth, diluted.

It can even rob us of presence, turning what we have now into a placeholder for something “better.”

“If I could just…” You know the line.

So how do we meet the just?

With enthusiasm.

The word comes from Greek, en theos, “the God within.”

Enthusiasm is the animating current that carries interest into eagerness, and eagerness into embodied living. It’s what makes something yours. Real. Lit from the inside.

Just tries to kill that spark early. But deep, rooted enthusiasm—the kind that rises from who you are, moves past those early dismissals. It doesn’t beg for permission. It simply flows.

So maybe next time you hear just in your mind, pause. Not to scold yourself, but to get curious.

What is this just trying to protect me from? What would happen if I dropped the word and took the thing seriously?

Sometimes, the smallest words carry significant meaning.

It’s just an idea.