How to Change Your Entire Life With One Sentence from William James

If you're a healthy skeptic, the title alone should give you pause.

Anybody selling you panaceas may as well be a present-day member of a traveling circus. In any case, I am here to show you the miraculous benefits that internalizing and living out one sentence can make. Hopefully, that alone can show you its potential.

American Father of Psychology William James has a varied biography, ranging from escapades at Harvard Medical School to thoughts of suicide. His life is historically grand in the way that most lives are historically grand: his work was seminal in a field. In particular, William James initially taught physiology psychology at Harvard College. James was contracted to produce a textbook of psychology by 1880 and appeared as a magnum opus in 1890 as The Principles of Psychology. James' work established a functional point of view in psychology by synthesizing mental science to the biological disciplines, among other pursuits, and also defended free will.

In fact, Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, writes this about James: "William James, the father of American psychology [is] one of the most influential philosophers of the past 100 years. Of course, he wasn’t these things yet, but he would go on to become them in large part due to his experiment. James would later refer to his experiment as his “rebirth,” and would credit it with everything that he would later accomplish."

This experiment in question arose from the following circumstance: William James returned home to greet a disappointed father. James was nearly 30 years old and an apparent failure at everything he'd ever given a go at. On the precipice of taking his own life, he resolved to attempt an experiment of his own design.

He decided to spend the incoming year with the core belief that he was entirely responsible for all that took place in his life (in other words, he decided to take 100 percent ownership of all events and outcomes in his life).

In essence, he was trying to answer his hypothesis on free will - if his circumstances at the end of the year did not result in a turnaround in his life, then that would indicate his powerlessness.

If William James' all-encompassing mental shift resulted in his career as the seminal father of American Psychology, then maybe taking the same advice will change your life.

The easiest way to apply it is to hear yourself mutter grievances, annoyances, or "if only" statements and convert them to "it's because I'm not doing this. I need to do this more often" statements.

For example: "My body is not the way I want it to be, this must be my age affecting my ability to lose weight. This sucks." Ask yourself: do other people my age have sculpted bodies? Do older people have sculpted bodies? Yes and yes. In other words, this is a semi-true belief; yes, age can make it more challenging to lose weight but no, age does not make it impossible to lose weight. If you really want to lose weight, you now have to go: "I will spend this year focusing on bridging the gap between what I want and what I don't currently have. I will get a gym membership, take a serious glance at my diet with a dietician, and start to consistently work out and eat a lot healthier. I will track my progress every two weeks so I know how I am doing. I will not give up this entire year, no matter how crappy my results are or how unmotivated I feel."

This can be done with absolutely any thought you have.

Start to try to change your world and be honest with what you want. Be honest with your desires, be honest with your own self-deception, your lies.

Your life is yours to live and you have to take full ownership over it; the good, the annoying, the frustrating, the ugly, the crude parts of it, all of it is yours and nothing to be ashamed of. Once you take ownership of all the mess, you'll be able to soar in any direction you intend.

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