What are words for?

Words, we see and hear them all day long.  They are magical things really.   Strokes and sounds that when they come together they are the most powerful things in the world.  Take the word "if", and this part comes courtesy of Stephen L. Whiteley, author of Happiness Works!   We can give this word new power in our lives.  Instead of being the anxiety inducing unknown, it can be an empowering invitation.  In his book, Stephen asks the reader to suspend doubt and ask themselves "what if this could work for me?"  Stop and digest that statement for a minute;  What IF this could work for me?  How insanely empowered does that make you feel.  The possibilities for success are endless.  .

 We are all living the boy scout creed: be prepared.   It has kept us alive for centuries.  We needed to think about what dangers lay ahead of us in order to survive without smart phones.  One flaw in the design of the human mind is the imagination.  Our brain can not tell the difference between real threat or imagined threat.  So we think of the more standard "what if" and every system in our body puts the brakes on.  We get stressed, our digestion slows, we dump stress hormones and chemicals into our body, we feel horrible and all because we used words to complete a sentence.  There probably was no real threat, at least not enough threat to warrant that amount of negative reaction, unless of course you thought of what if the parachute doesn't open (there is a YOUTube video for that situation).  

Knowing how much power words can have on us, lets go back to Stephen's suggestion.  What if this is good?  What if I succeed?  What if they like me?  Those words are filled with excitement and curiosity.  Those words are the beginning of a great adventure with promise.  The challenge for this week is to take control away from those two letters.  Giving this word the power to send you into a tale spin isn't fair to you.  Pick two other letters like "me"