It can be hard to see the forest through the trees...

It can be hard to see the forest through the trees…

Our deep-rooted beliefs, especially beliefs about ourselves, are based on evidence–that’s why it’s so hard for anyone to change what they believe.  The fact that we often base any given belief on false evidence is completely irrelevant. We get enough bad grades on the math test and we believe we can’t do math; we lose enough soccer games and we believe we can’t win; we hear enough “No thank-you’s” and we believe we can’t sell anything; we get enough rejection, make enough mistakes, experience too few successes, miss enough deadlines… and the evidence piles up against us.

And then the worst happens.

That which was supposed to be an opinion ends up being viewed as a fact, and facts are viewed as unchangeable and inarguable.  But these negative piles of evidence don’t actually point to facts–they simply lure us into beliefs and opinions. You might argue with that–after all, isn’t the point of evidence that it leads to and helps us understand facts? Perhaps, but people are not that simple. Instead, people are a lot like the stock market: Past performance is no indication of future gains. That’s the lesson to apply to you, in your life. The fact that you might have lost yesterday is not proof you will lose tomorrow.  A much greater indicator, in fact, is not rooted in whether you lost yesterday, but in what you believe you will do today.  As Henry Ford taught us: “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

So what do you think you’ll do?