A college freshman showed up late on the first day of her math class. As she entered she heard the teacher say “ …if you don’t complete them you will fail this class.” She noticed two problems on the board and wrote them down under the assumption that if she didn’t do these two problems that she would fail the class. She sat down at the library that night and worked on these problems. She struggled and struggled and finally left the library late at night deciding to hang it up for the day. As she walked home these two problems vexed her, she kept hearing those words “if you don’t complete them you will fail the class.” She vowed that she would work on them every spare minute the next day thinking that if she didn’t have them completed by the next class, that she would fail.
She worked hard the next day and finally completed one of the problems. She was now sure she could solve the next one but after many hours she was perplexed. She went to see the teacher before her class the next day thinking that maybe he could point her in the right direction in order to complete the unsolved problem. In his office she presented to him the one problem she had completed, to show him she was honestly working on these problems. She began to plead with him not to fail her because she had not solved the second problem and that she would like a little help. He stopped her in mid speech and with perplexing eyes he asked “Why would I fail you if you did not complete these two problems?” She was embarrassed and admitted to arriving late to his class, stating that she had heard him say “if you don’t complete them you will fail this class” and that she thought he was talking about the two problems on the board. While she was explaining herself, he was glancing over the one problem that she had solved. A big grin came over his face, “My my – you have just solved a problem that has never been solved and has had the best mathematicians perplexed for years!”
The moral of the story: 1) Not to be late you might miss some very important information; and 2) by far the most important moral is that since she had not heard that these two problems were impossible to solve – she BELIEVED that they were solvable to her and her classmates and that if she didn’t solve them that she would fail. If she would have known that they were impossible to solve she could have never done it!
Beliefs play a huge role in life. How many times has somebody told you “That’s impossible” or “You’ll never finish” or “You’re no good at that.” Beliefs are extremely powerful in our lives and when we believe something to be true – we literally are pushed into the state of it being true. Beliefs can be detrimental or they can create the greatest goods to our lives.
I am an Belief, Life and Business Coach - A Transmitter of Possibilities. I’ve taught self-improvement and self enlightening workshops on happiness, lifting limiting beliefs, & finding work that one loves.
I introduce you to the possibility of choosing to be happy and doing what you love to do for a living. You may believe you don’t have other options to what you’re doing and how you’re thinking. Or you may know other options, but you think they’re impossible. I offer you a way to open the door to possibilities you may have missed or think are out of reach. To awaken your possibilities, visit my website: www.CreatingOptimisticBeliefs.com or contact me directly by email: Lisa@CreatingOptimisticBeliefs.com
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