If you think you are beaten, you are,

If you think you dare not, you don’t

If you like to win, but you think you can’t,

It is almost certain you won’t.

 

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost

For out of the world we find,

Success begins with a fellow’s will—

It’s all in the state of mind.

 

If you think you are 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 man WHO THINKS HE CAN!

Thinking is the name of this poem penned by a man for whom not much is known – Walter D Wintle.

Apparently so little so that Napoleon Hill failed to accredit anything more than the name “poet” in Think and Grow Rich.

Perhaps this is fitting not for the fact that Wintle is not provided due credit, but rather because the anonymity of attribution renders the poem even more timeless.

Have you ever come to a point where you think that you just can’t go forward any longer? What was the reason for this feeling?

If it was because of fear that you don’t have it in you to succeed, then maybe you just ought to throw in the towel … you are through!

Leveling that degree of self-judgment at oneself can really be dispiriting. So, I invite you to consider distinguishing whether it is because you have lost faith that you can bring a project to realization, or whether the project has meaningful merit.

This has been my struggle for no less than the last couple of years and doubt crept in perhaps perhaps two or three years even before that time.

So, all told I have struggled to maintain a sense of purpose for my work for about a 1/2 decade. That’s an incredibly long time, yet again there are many stories out there of “overnight successes” who were no less than a decade in the making.

In fact, even the quickest “overnight success” take at least three years of incubation as demonstrated by this Business Insider article about the most powerful tech start-ups [HERE].

It seems that with both faith and incredible persistence, there is a way to fulfill one’s dreams. This is the hero’s journey that only a few choose to undertake and for which even fewer succeed.

But what happens when you realize that your dream is meaningless? Is this true? Or, is it the deceiving attempt to staunch the the flow of pain for letting go of that for which you have sacrificed so much!

Perhaps you need to forgive yourself not for giving up on the “impossible”, but rather acknowledge that you are redirecting in an effort to gain knowledge, skills, and new faith in yourself.

You are doing this in order to achieve your aim. The aim of living a life, both in the moment and upon its conclusion, which has meaning.

The more distant the aim, the more important it is to have faith it will all come together. Yet, there has to be meaning in daily tasks too.

Decide what to do. Think positively. Have faith. Move forward. Continue along your path.

You are still alive!

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Photo Credit: https://uuchurchofriverside.org/services/the-power-of-evolving-faith/