Mike Dooley: I remember my first big lesson with words

I remember my first big lesson with words when I was in high school. I had my first girlfriend and I hated those quiet times. We’d be walking somewhere, or I’d be visiting her and all of a sudden — silence.

And your mind starts racing, you know, Did I say something stupid? Doesn’t she like me anymore? I wonder if she still feels the same way?

So being young and green and in love I didn’t know what to do about that, so I would just banter. Well, at the same time that I had this new girlfriend, my uncle — my British uncle — was visiting us from the U.K.

We were living in Florida at the time and his mantra — Jeez it was his mantra whether or not he was visiting us — was [adopts a bad British accent here], “I’m so tired. I’m soooo bloody exhausted! I am sooo exhausted! I don’t know why but I am so tired.”

Well, having a need to fill up silence, and being willing to banter about anything, I used my uncle’s words without even knowing it. And to fill up the silences with my new girlfriend I would say, “Wow, I’m really tired today. I’m so tired today. I have no idea why but I am exhausted. I am so tired.”

As you can imagine, this is not a good way to foster young love. I became so tired, and she’d be like, “Mike, why are you always so tired?”

And I’d be like, “I don’t know but I am, I’m so tired!”

Well, back then I wasn’t saying “thoughts become things,” but I had begun my journey into understanding the powers of thought, the powers of our mind — and it dawned on me one day — it must have been an angel whispering in my ear — “If I stop saying, ‘I’m so tired, I’m so tired, I’m so exhausted, I don’t know why.’ I wonder if I’d feel a little better, if I wouldn’t be so tired?”

. . . And it was virtually instantaneous. Immediately the fatigue I’d been feeling went away. It was shocking. Even then as a high school student I was blown away by the immediate results that I was experiencing by not saying, “I’m so tired.”

And I bet you know the truth about what I’m saying. In fact I bet you know that you could make yourself as tired as I did by saying that again and again, day in and day out. “I’m so tired. I’m so tired. I’m so tired.”

Right? Am I right? . . . I’m right.