ONCE YOU’VE MADE UP YOUR MIND about something, your mind works overtime to make itself right. Tell yourself “I have a high energy level” and your mind will try to make you right about that — you’ll find energy reserves you didn’t know you had, or your mind will fool you and make you think and feel you have more energy than you “really” do. Either way is better than feeling tired.

The same forces operate just as effectively with something negative. Say to yourself “I just don’t seem to have the energy I had when I was younger” and your mind will make you right. Even if it’s not true, the times you feel tired will stand out in your memory, and moments of high energy will be disqualified, dismissed, or forgotten.

Change what you say to yourself about people you don’t get along with and your mind will work overtime to make yourself right. If you say she’s a jerk, your actions will tend to bring out her jerkiness when she’s around you because you want to be right. If you say to yourself she just had a bad day or is improving every day, your actions will subtly influence her behavior in a way that makes you right. You have the power. It’s not absolute and almighty, but what you say to yourself influences your state of mind, the way you treat others, and thus the way they treat you.

Since you have a mind that tries to be right, you might as well use it. Make sure the things you say to yourself about yourself and other people are things you want to be right about. And you will be.