At the beginning of this past semester, I gave my students the famous quote by Henry Ford and asked them to respond to it:
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t – you’re right!”
It can come across as little more than a cheesy motivational poster caption, but I think Ford was onto something incredibly profound.
If you think about it, in a wider sense, Ford is saying that reality is entirely determined between our ears.
This is something I have been thinking about for the past year or more: I don’t have direct access to reality. Reality is ALWAYS filtered through my senses and into my brain where it is reassembled and then … interpreted.
And my interpretation of what is going on around me is going to play the primary role in what I say and think and do.
(P.S. This is one of the reasons I am so concerned over the possibility I am experiencing some (mild) form of depression. If my interpretation of reality all trends toward negativity and hopelessness, I am going to speak and think and act negatively and hopelessly.
And I won’t be much fun to be around.)
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