Two friends, 8 year old Ram & 9 year old Shyam, love to monkey around the trees. Their favourite game was to climb up the trees and poles and literally hang from there, sometimes upside down. Just because they thought it was fun. Their little brains didn’t process that the branch from where they were hanging could break and they can get hurt.

One day as they were goofing around, a huge gust of wind came by. Ram and Shyam’s Father were both there suddenly afraid for their kids. As the wind became stronger.. the tree they were hanging on to, began swaying to the wind, the leaves rattling violently.

‘Hold on tightly Ram’.. yelled his father. And so Ram did exactly what he was told

Suddenly he heard a loud scream of Shyam falling from the tree.. and lay flat on the ground. Apparently when Shyam’s father felt the gust of wind, he yelled out ‘Don’t fall Shyam’. But Shyam did fall.

Both friends in the same situation. The results were different. Why do you think it is?

Our mind relies on our internal images and takes times processing a negative ones. And words help us create those images.

In this story, Ram’s father asked him to ‘Hold on tightly’ The image Ram saw was him hanging on tightly.. which translated into the behaviour. Where as Shyam father told him not to fall, he first imagined falling before he could tell his brain not to do what he imagined.

What we see ourselves doing, will eventually get done. And word have the power to change the narrative.

What kind of words are you using?

Take a moment to reflect on what words are frequent in your vocabulary and whether they’re serving you or defeating you.