Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right either way.” Maybe because I spent some time in my Ford dealership this week and was faced with challenges and obstacles, I found myself going straight to a negative place.
Entering into a whole new type of business with unknown areas to look at and inspect, you see an entirely different set of issues than the ones I have grown accustomed to in my other business.
But as you look at every issue, you have to address it with a can-do attitude. For a minute, I found myself thinking that there was no way to win. That these things were going to engulf me like some kind of wildfire. But after taking a step back each time and remembering what brought me there, I flipped the narrative in my mind to a can-do attitude.
This is something ingrained in each of us from some of our earliest memories. The book “The Little Engine That Could” – I vividly remember being read to me by my mother, and the lines “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” It was a cool story when you were three, but it has a payoff and a life lesson now at 43 that is something I just can’t help but smile about.
Each day throws us challenges and situations that we think we will never get over and never get past. But when you get served with these each day, go back and channel your inner 3-year-old self and just remember “The Little Engine That Could.” Because after all, whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right either way.