Cast A Spell On Yourself.
Hello, I recently ran into an old friend named Nicholas. We had grown up in the same neighborhood, although we were never particularly close. What I remembered most about him was that he was an extremely overweight child. Because of his weight, he often couldn’t participate in the sports the rest of us played. In some ways, he always seemed to be standing just outside the circle. But when I saw him recently, I almost didn’t recognize him. He was in terrific shape. Naturally, I asked him what had changed. He smiled and told me something I haven’t stopped thinking about. His grandmother had once told him: “Once on the lips, always on the hips.” It was a simple phrase. Almost a throwaway sentence. But Nicholas remembered it. And somehow, those few words stayed with him long enough to change the way he thought about food, which eventually changed the way he ate, changed his body, changed his confidence, his relationships, and, in his words, helped him begin living an optimized life. Think about that for a moment. A sentence changed a life. We often think of words as something that comes after a thought. Yet sometimes, words come first. A phrase enters our mind, and our mind begins working around it. I guess that is why we call certain words a “spell.” A spell, after all, is something spoken with the hope that it will cause something to happen. And maybe our everyday phrases work in a much quieter way. Think about the sentences you repeat to yourself. "I always mess this up." "I'm just not good at this." Or perhaps: "I can figure this out." "I've done difficult things before." The words may be small. But the direction they point your mind toward can be enormous. This is not about pretending that a problem isn't difficult. It is about giving your mind a better sentence to work with. Because sometimes the challenge isn't that we don't have the strength to move forward. Perhaps we simply haven't found the words that help us see the next step. Maybe there is something you are struggling with right now. A habit you can't seem to break. A relationship you've allowed to become distant. Or simply something you've been telling yourself is impossible. What if, instead of asking, “How do I overcome this?” you ask yourself: “What is the sentence I need to hear?” It might be something your mother once told you. Something your grandfather used to say. Or a line from a book. Something you picked up from the internet. Words are remarkably small things. Yet they can carry an extraordinary amount of weight. And sometimes, all it takes is one sentence to make us look at an old problem with new eyes. So, before you go about your day, think about the challenge that has been occupying a little corner of your mind and ask yourself: What phrase could become my spell? Happy choosing, Bob
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