The Power of Words

Small Statements Can Change Your Outlook on How You View Your Life

And they are always small sentences that set your brain on fire.

Isn’t it funny how one statement can instantly change your whole life?

It sticks in your head like peanut butter to the roof of your mouth. Or that fly that keeps invading your picnic and won’t go away. Or the family pet that incessantly wants your attention and won’t let you write.

You are sitting with a friend talking about a lousy decision another friend is making. Suddenly they say something that sets your brain on fire and changes you. Hopefully for the better.

That’s exactly what happened to me. What was actually a much longer phrase boiled down to exactly three words.

Just own it.

I know. It sounds far too close to the Nike slogan. Oh well.

Those three little words as well as the context of the conversation have stuck in my mind for years. Changed how I view my decisions, mistakes, circumstances, and how I handle them.

I now own and freely admit to the decisions I make. Some turn out well. Some come back to bite me in the butt. Either way, it was the choice I made and I have to live with the consequences and learn from them.

More often than not I have a sore butt…lol.

A little while back a wrote a small article about how I was having an anxiety problem during a friend’s wedding. I didn’t hide it. I owned it and opened up to my friends around me. They understood and stayed by me.

Many of you have been told all of your lives that you need to learn from your mistakes. One problem with that. For you to learn from your mistakes, you need to own them first.

No blaming anyone else for your own decisions or the situation they put you in. You made the choice. Not someone else.

Still, owning your own decisions gives you the freedom to learn from your mistakes and forgive yourself for making them in the first place.

I should know. I have to forgive myself almost every day and figure out how to fix the new mess I’ve gotten myself into.

More than likely, someone gave you bad information. They may have been purposely misleading you or maybe they were also given bad information.

I’ve come across many statements that have changed the way I look at things over the years. Recently I wrote an article about what a bar owner told me which changed how I thought about bartending and eventually about writing.

Sometimes life-changing lessons come from serious discussions. Sometimes they come from sarcasm or flippant jokes. You never know.

Nine times out of ten, they come from very short sentences of only a few words.

Why?

The short sentences seem to be the most powerful. They get the job done. Fast and to the point. Context implied or already built-in.

And since we all seem to have short attention spans these days, short statements are the only ones that stick.

What small statements do you carry in your mind that have changed you or how you look at things?

Or you can just buy me a cup of coffee.