self esteem

Don’t Turn Off the Stove at 99°C.

A friendly little physics lesson on optimism, persistence, and not quitting.

You know the saying, “Quitters never win, and winners never quit.” It’s been stitched onto gym bags and quoted by coaches forever—for a reason. Let’s make it less slogan, more picture, so you can feel.

Imagine you put a kettle on the stove. The flame is steady. Minutes pass. The water warms, then warms some more. Nothing dramatic happens. No steam train. No whistle solo. If someone walked in at minute seven, they’d swear you were wasting gas.

Here’s the quiet truth: the water is doing calculus behind the scenes. Every second of heat is being banked. Molecules are getting restless. Energy is accumulating in a way your eyes can’t see—until the very moment you can. Then, at 100°C, the state changes. Liquid becomes vapour. Whoooosh.

That whoosh is why optimism matters.

Optimism isn’t confetti. It’s the decision to keep the flame on because you trust the physics. It’s believing your effort can tilt the odds long enough to reach the boil. Without that belief, most of us flick the burner off at 99°C—one degree shy of seeing what all those invisible minutes were building toward.

Therapy, fitness, new habits, rewiring old reactions—it’s all kettle work. Early on, progress looks suspiciously like nothing. Your mind whispers, “See? Pointless.” Grief, stress, or a tough week? The whisper gets louder. But if you keep the flame steady—showing up, even imperfectly—your system keeps banking energy. And when it flips, it looks sudden from the outside. From the inside, it’s just physics finally going audible.

A few friendly truths from the stovetop:

• The kettle never makes a noise to reassure you. It just asks for steady heat.

• Tapping the lid, timing the whistle, or arguing with the water does not speed the boil. (Tempting though.)

• Turning the flame off and on all day makes it take longer. A little steady warmth beats heroic bursts.

• If a splash cools things down—grief, a setback, a bad day—you don’t scold the water. You let it warm again.

About now, someone says, “But what if I’m the exception? What if my water doesn’t boil?” That’s the mind protecting you from disappointment. And yet the longer story of human change—thousands of kettles in thousands of kitchens—says the same thing: steady heat, given time, changes state. The whoosh arrives.

A few voices who knew a thing or two about hard things:

• “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” —often attributed to Nelson Mandela

• “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” —often attributed to Confucius

• “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” —Thomas Edison

• “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” —Winston Churchill

• “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” —Japanese proverb

None of them was talking about kettles. All of them were talking about kettles.

So if you’re in the long middle—where change feels slow and your brain is campaigning for an early exit—remember the physics. Optimism keeps the flame on. Persistence keeps the pot where it needs to be. Progress is often quiet until it isn’t.

And when the whistle finally sings, it won’t be an accident. It’ll be your minutes, your heat, your steady faith in the unseen—coming to a boil.

Parting words to tuck in your pocket:

Keep the flame gentle and on. Trust the minutes you can’t see. When it feels like 99°C, smile—and stay. The next degree is closer than it looks.

Regards,

Mike Proulx, Certified Hypnotherapist.

Website design: This website (perpetually under construction with new content) is designed by Mike Proulx, Professional Hypnotherapist and amateur web developer. Let the quality of the information be your primary focus - over the site's looks. As the old saying goes, never judge a book by its cover. Just like people, it's what's on the inside that counts! :)