‘Constantly striving’ – avoid this cliché

One phrase brands should stop using right now is ‘constantly striving’. Variants like ‘always striving’ are just as bad.

A company recently wrote to tell me that it is ‘always striving to make our policies clearer and more transparent’.

I had several thoughts about this:

• Making your policies clear and transparent is a noble goal. But you shouldn’t be ‘always striving’ to do it. You should just do it and move on.
• The word ‘striving’ suggests some kind of struggle. If it’s really such a struggle to make the policies clear, I wonder if there’s something wrong with the policies themselves.
• ‘Always’ suggests that this is what the company spends all its time doing. Making their policies clear is certainly important. But I bet they’re not really constantly working on it.

What’s so bad about ‘constantly striving’?

Exaggeration

Often, the phrase ‘constantly striving’ comes across as an exaggeration. ‘Constantly’ means all the time. Are these claims really true?

• ‘We are constantly striving to streamline your life.’
• ‘We are constantly striving to improve our sustainability initiatives.’

It makes you look ineffective

‘Constantly striving’ suggests struggle. It also gives the sense that you haven’t yet achieved whatever it is you’re striving to do.

If you use the phrase, you risk making yourself look weak.

• The brand that is ‘constantly striving to be adaptive and dynamic’ implies that it is neither adaptive nor dynamic at the moment.
• Another company is ‘constantly striving to provide inclusive events and activities for all communities’, suggesting that it is perhaps failing to do so at the moment.
• The hotel that says it is ‘constantly striving to enhance our reputation’ raises alarm bells with me. What’s gone wrong that means it needs to work so hard on its reputation?

It says nothing

Often, the phrase ‘constantly striving’ just says nothing at all about your company.

• When we hear that a company ‘is always striving to perform beyond customers’ expectations’, we learn nothing.
• Another brand proclaims that it is ‘constantly striving to improve our products and services by pushing the boundaries of innovation within our company’. But who isn’t doing that?
• One particularly ambitious brand is ‘constantly striving to improve on an impeccable track record’. Of course, this is impossible.

What to say instead

Don’t say what you’re striving to do. Say what you are doing, what you will do and, best of all, what you have done.

• Say how you’ve made your policies clearer and more transparent.
• Explain what, specifically, you’re doing to push boundaries in your company.
• Give concrete examples of the sustainability initiatives you’ve introduced or improved (and say how).

The phrase ‘constantly striving’ is not specific enough.

And it avoids the issue of what you’re actually doing or achieving.

Specific, concrete examples always communicate more than general, waffly clichés.