Stop saying stop and start saying start. Sounds kinda like a tongue twister, huh?! It’s all in our verbiage. We are constantly saying lots of stuff about the things we don’t want in our lives. But who cares they’re just words right?! The things we speak out have more meaning and more impact on ourselves and those around us.
Let me explain. Recently I have been doing a lot of observing of those around me and listening to how they verbalize things which is fascinating. Well actually not just recently, I have always done this because I am hyper-curious. I don’t like saying nosey because that just sounds bad. People-watching is a hobby of mine. lol
Just here people watching.
I observed a couple of guys chatting it up about how they had to stop drinking beer and that it was such a waste of money and unhealthy for them. I became curious whether they were the type to follow through with what they said. Immediately after one guy said, “We have been saying this for years and still haven’t stopped.” That really made me think.
The two guys are long gone at this point and my brain is still firing on all cylinders. I felt bad for them that they couldn’t seem actually stop drinking beer. Most important about this situation is that I didn’t know the people and I am only making assumptions at this point for the purposes of delivering a fruitful blog post for you guys. 🙂
Did they really want to stop or were they just saying it? For many stopping certain habits can be really taxing and they may not know how to go about it. Some would say if they really wanted to they should just quit. Again, it isn’t that easy especially if they had been doing it for many years as it seemed they did to me.
What did you say?
We need to pay attention to what we say and how we say it. Focusing on the problem by saying, “Stop” may not be helpful. I believe that replacing the word “stop” with the word “start” could be very helpful. It’s all about how you position it. Using the beer conversion above for example, perhaps they could have said, “I need to start going to the gym” instead if the problem was based on lack of exercise and just sitting around drinking beer all the time.
Using the word, “start” could really help you get onto a positive mindset about the things that you would like to do instead of solely focusing on the negative stuff that you don’t want. Focus on the good stuff. If we keep focusing on the bad the bad will just keep hanging around and inviting their other bad stuff to join the pity party.
Start shifting to a new mindset. A healthy one. When you start saying,
“start” you are beginning to put good things out there. This may be tough to accomplish in the beginning because again if you have been this way your whole life you could see how patterns could repeat themselves. Start making notes about goals that you want to accomplish and stop saying the stop portion of it.
Bonus: This new shift of saying start will only serve you if you put action behind it. Just saying start and doing nothing about it is just a hope and a dream. Hollow and empty. Make it happen by physically doing it!
Conclusion
We are always saying things that we don’t want in our lives, but it just seems that many of those things just continue on. Focus on the new with the word, “start” and pay attention to when you say things. With this new awareness you should be well on your way to accomplishing your goals.
Question
List an example of a time in the past when you said you wanted to stop doing something and how you overcame it. Or is it still something you want to stop doing? Tell us in the comments below.
