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Whether you think you can: Today’s discussion is of a beautiful quote by Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right”. The discussion centres around self-belief, self-doubts, and the strength you need to muster in order to defeat these doubts. It is also about building the art of self-confidence to keep moving forward. If you’re taking up challenges that are difficult, you’ll need to find a belief system to think beyond limitations.

Whether you think you can – Meaning

If you are looking at something new/ challenging to do – at some point in your mind you must have felt – I can do this. This is a central thought which defines the type of challenges you take seriously. As Kalam says – dreams transform into thoughts and then reality! If you’re serious about something, then there’s a part of your mind that says that you can achieve it!

The belief projected by Henry Ford is about believing and building this train of thought to achieve your goals. The chance of success is a beautiful ray of hope. You can use this to leverage and build your dreams further. However, you must be aware of the challenges that come your way. This isn’t about wishful thinking, but about committing to what you believe in!

A possibility is a wonderful starting point for you to start creating a desirable path for your passion/desire. From there, you will have a few key steps which define the strength of this passion

• Why do you think you can do this?
• What will you feel like once you have achieved this?
• The type of person you will become after you accomplish your desire
• Recognition you receive from others
• What does it make you feel when you have completed this challenge.

We have heard of those beautiful quotes which say – who you become is more important than what you achieve. For what you achieve is temporary, but who you become has a lasting effect!

You think you can’t

Long ago, we talked about – Our doubts are our traitors! But our doubts have a very strong reason for their presence. If you didn’t have these doubts, there is no check for all the things we can pursue.

Although at some instances it might sound like a good thing, but it really is a good checker on the things we decide to do. Instead of playing the blame game, let’s look at these doubts as rational beings which caution us about the adversities we might have to think about.

Doubts are slightly different from fears. They can very easily lead us to fears, but just doubts in themselves can be quite useful. Once you have a list of your doubts, before you believe all of them – you must quantify/qualify these doubts. You cannot be wasting your time over fake ones. The following questions will help you quantify some doubts: 

• What is the message this doubt is telling me? Is it asking me to doubt my capabilities or the resources I have?
• Can I use this doubt for my benefit? Is it just an emotional state or is the doubt real – the real ones which talk about tangible challenges like resources, connections, etc
• What can I do to fix these challenges? Is there help available which can assist me in these?

Discard the useless doubts

Once you have quantified your doubts, you must discard the ones which are useless as well. Such useless doubts take the format:

• I have failed before. What if something happens just like the last time?
• There is an element of uncertainty – what if everything works against me?
• I can never succeed, these dreams are for lucky people

Any doubt which asks you to question yourself, luck or abilities or otherwise is quite possibly a fake one. The real ones need fixing and the fake ones need a strong mental stature to block them away. These are distractions which get you nowhere.

The only way is to consciously steer away from these blockers. After all, there is only one way to move ahead and to remind us of the quote from Henry Ford

Whether You Think You Can Or Think You Can’t, You’re Right

– Henry Ford