I think the typical reaction when you hear the Henry Ford quote, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right” is something along the lines of—
“Ooo that’s a good quote”—and then shortly after cut to us immediately doubting ourselves and our abilities. At least that’s how it goes for me.
My definition of a cliche is something you hear so much that it loses all meaning and value in your mind. We know that the majority of the time we need to “Just do it.” Instead, we worry, fear, run away, stress, anguish, complain, blame and do all manner of loitering—anything but just doing what we know we need to do.
“You think you can’t” is the part that truly holds us back.
I’ll catch myself doing everything I can to convince myself that something’s not possible or that I’m limited in some way. I can’t start a company because of X Y Z A Q B reasons. I can’t write a novel yet because of blah blah blah.
The only thing that’s limiting is my current mindset. Everything else that’s pushing against me, “limiting” me is an opportunity for me to be more creative, more humble, and more impactful.
Of course in order for that to be true we need to stop holding ourselves back with unhelpful thoughts. The mind is a muscle. Having strong, healthy thoughts takes training just like any other muscle.
