Disbelief. It’s a funny little thing that many of us overlook. Like a cat stalking a mouse to prey on, it sneaks up on us.
Disbelief pops into our sentences. “Oh, I don’t know if I could do THAT.” “This dinner is so great, I never could have made it.” Or my personal favorite “I’m just not a morning person.”
A mentor once told me: of course you’re not a morning person, you just said you weren’t!
We didn’t always have these thoughts, though. Remember being a kid? Becoming an astronaut or a famous musician was not only a dream, it was an inevitability.
Climb that tree over there? Sure. Hold our breath underwater? Why not. Become the Queen of the Free World? On it. It was naivete, sure, but it was belief.
Which brings me to one of my favorite poems of all-time, “The Man (or Woman) Who Thinks (S)He Can” by Walter D. Wintle.
If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost,
For out in the world we find
Success being with a fellow’s will;
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you’re outclassed, you are:
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can.
It’s Monday. It’s exactly halfway through the year (I love when the timing works out evenly like this).
Believe you can do it. It’s half the battle.