Change the Way You Think. Change Everything.

A Stanford psychology professor shows how subtle reframes and simple acts of empathy can transform careers, marriages, and more.

What if one sentence could change the course of a relationship—or even a life?

Not a grand gesture. Not a major breakthrough. Just a quiet moment of insight, delivered at just the right time. It sounds like magic. But according to Stanford psychologist Greg Walton, it’s something far more accessible: science.

Greg—who Carol Dweck calls “one of the great psychologists of our time”— has written a new book called Ordinary Magic: The Science of How We Can Achieve Big Change with Small Acts. In it, he calls attention to the power of “wise interventions”—small, strategic shifts in how we talk to ourselves and others that create lasting change. Whether it’s helping a student believe they belong, easing tension in a marriage, or seeing yourself in a new light, the right words at the right moment can ripple outward in surprising and powerful ways.

So what makes a sentence stick? What turns a moment into a turning point? Here are five key takeaways from Greg’s book: