The human brain can process 600 to 800 words a minute. But how many of those words can actually make an impact on our actions?

According to Jonah Berger, author of the recently released book, “Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way,” almost everything we do involves words. Berger, also the author of The New York Times bestselling book, “Contagious: Why Things Catch On,” notes that from emails and phone calls to face-to-face interactions, words are how we persuade, communicate, and connect.

“But while we pay a lot of attention to what we want to communicate (for example, ‘You should buy this’ or ‘This is why you should do that’), we often pay a lot less attention to the specific words we use,” he says. “And that’s a mistake. Because certain words are more impactful than others.”

One sage word of advice from Berger for vision care professionals: “People often hedge. They say things like ‘this might work,’ ‘those will probably be good,’ or ‘I think these are the best.’ But while we say things like this without even thinking about it, these phrases can undermine our impact. They make people think we’re less confident about what we are saying, which makes them less likely to follow our suggestions.”