The Villain Within
may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”? Yeah we’ve all heard it, but it can be hard to live by. As I write this, my kids are seven and nine. The number one thing I try to teach them is that other people’s words and actions can’t affect you unless you let them. I’ve said this a lot throughout the book, but it’s a question I’d have you ask yourself during every chapter and every day: Do you want to be a thermostat or thermometer? Do you want to suffer from hurtful words and allow them to create negative physical changes (tears, stress-induced illness, etc.), or do you want to decide to live in a more beautiful state where you don’t care what other people say or do, because you create your own joy and passion? You can absolutely choose to disempower the words that cause negative emotions. The words said a month ago, a year ago, or maybe 20 years ago—if they still bother you, then you are the one responsible for providing them with the power to hurt. You can take away the capacity of words to hurt you. Why not do so now? Keep the concept of the inner villain in mind to motivate yourself. The more we allow those negative, emotion-laden words to hurt us, the more we give strength to the inner vil- lain. As a result, our confidence goes down, self-doubt increas- es, and we start having a negative perception of the world. We can easily go from an abundance mind-set to a scarcity mind- set in an instant. If you get sucked into a scarcity mind-set, it doesn’t mean that you’re a horribly negative person. But it does mean your state of mind was compromised. And when you’re in a bad state, it’s hard to be your best self. Try this Tony Robbins exercise to take the power away from words that may have a strong negative effect on you. To get his audience to see the association people give a group of letters stringed together, Tony will say “bum” and tell the audience that is what his British friends say; that for them it’s the same as when we say “butt.” He pauses, then asks, “What if I said ass ? Does that make anyone feel different or offend anyone?” He will also do that same word evolution with other private parts like
59
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker