No doubt you have heard about the children’s book, ‘The Little Red Engine That Could’ written in the 1930s. If not, the crux of the whole matter is the little train struggling along to haul a huge load of cars and merchandise and as it goes it keeps repeating while it chugs along: “ I think I can, I think I can”.
So obviously in motivational literature this book is quoted many times because it shows the determination and strength necessary to stay focused and to ‘keep on trucking’. We will always just about anywhere in this life, no matter what we do, encounter obstacles and difficulties. If we allow them to become our focus then they will prevent us from doing many things we would otherwise accomplish in spite of them.
It’s as if it is some sort of right of passage that we have to struggle. Why? To prove we really want something enough to fight for it? Or conversely to weed out those things that will just be a waste of time because we really don’t care about them enough to fight? It seems appropriate to remind of the saying: ‘What doesn’t kill us will make us stronger’. So this must really relate to the belief that when we overcome difficulties and trials that we become stronger because we are conquerors.
Looking at it from the dark side, if we think we can’t then we probably won’t – Or said another way ‘if you think you can’t you are probably right’. So you have to decide on how you will function with your mindset. Plenty of us are used to being very negative because so many things are not in our control and we wish they would be otherwise, but can’t do anything to change them. We have to ‘accept the things we cannot change’. Very good advice but sometimes it is hard to do and we wonder why that is the best we can do.
We really have to force ourselves sometimes to see things in a positive light – to find the good in things that really don’t appear that way on the surface. If you have to, then try to see conquering your obstacles and problems to continue on to do what you need to do as an exercise that is strengthening you. It is true that if you can learn to overcome the small things that this will help you when you have to overcome something that is really important or substantial.
Believe in yourself and stay positive. Try to focus on the light only and just brush off the rest and keep moving onward! It wasn’t a famous saying, or classic literature, but just a deodorant commercial – however it really stuck and is appropriate to this conversation. “Don’t ever let them see you sweat”. 🙂
