Magic Tic Tacs

In a desperate attempt to change the fate of my losing team during a middle school kickball game, I popped open my container of orange-flavored Tic Tacs and offered a couple to teammate before she went up to kick.

“They’ll give you energy to kick the ball harder,” I reassured her.

She got a home run.

The next team member came up, I gave him a couple Tic Tacs as well which he accepted with great enthusiasm after witnessing what had just happened. He got another home run.

We couldn’t quite make up the difference between our two scores in the end, though that would’ve made for an incredible ending this story.

But what did happen in the final rounds of the game are no less fascinating.

I don’t question that the Tic Tacs played a role in our drastic shift in performance…but, critically, I think it had nothing to do with the contents of the candy and everything to do with what people chose to believe about what they could accomplish after eating it.