I could go on. I could play background music from Man of La Manche. We could all "dream the impossible dream," "fight the unfightable foe, and so forth, but in the end, we would still be stuck with the same reality we started with.
Frequently, armies go to war expecting to win, only to return, if they return at all, in defeat.
Young men go forth with dreams of matrimony, expecting to father children with the woman of their desire, but come home broken-hearted, wondering if the jeweler will take that ring back.
Before my positive thinking friends jump all over me, I want to say that the attitude with which we face a task, especially a big, hard task can give us energy--perhaps enough energy to get us over the threshold of success. A few years ago, I wrote about the "Little Engine Who Could," but in that piece, I really said more about the power of negative thinking--power to keep us stuck where we are--than about the power of expectation, or positive thinking.
The reality is, a good thing in too strong a dose or in greater quantity than is prudent, can be a very bad thing. Expectation is such a thing.
Expectation is not a magical formula that guarantees success. It has no power to conjure up the result that one expects. If expectation is part of the motivation for us to put in the hard work that is really the prime ingredient of achieving our goals, then expectation is a good thing, a very good thing. Expectation, though, is no substitute for perspiration.
Walt Disney achieved a great deal. Many of his dreams, big dreams at that, did come true, but, "If you dream it you can do it"?
That's Mickey Mouse.
It's STTA.
No comments:
Post a Comment