This homily on the power of positive thinking was recently delivered to me, not by a life coach or a motivation guru but by a freshly minted, made-in-USA MBA. The context was an interview (I was doing the interviewing) though that may not have been evident to a casual observer, such was the confidence of the youngster.
I have been trying to run 10 km in 50 minutes ever since I started running. I have trained hard, consulted many coaches, gone through dozens of YouTube videos on running technique but alas, the goal eludes me. The best I have managed, ever, is 56 minutes, and that was nearly 20 years ago. I pointed this out to the freshly minted MBA as an example of limits on what we can accomplish.
“No, that’s not what I meant,” she countered, “there are physical limits, and they are linked to our genetic inheritance etc.”. So in what sense did she mean that there are no limits? As another example I told her about me as an entrepreneur, could I build up my fledgling business into a 100 million dollar enterprise? It’s worthwhile noting, I told the MBA, that in our extended family, I am the first in many generations to attempt a business; us Brahmins have served Kings and Governments (and CEO’s of late) but building a business never. History it seems is stacked against me. I rattled off half-a-dozen other examples of limits on our achievements.
Our conversation meandered after that but I have been wondering about this cliché on the power of positive thinking. For every person who excels against all odds, there are thousands who fail, and not for want of trying. So what does “no limits on what you can do” really mean?
I run 10 km in about 65 minutes. If I really train hard and smart, I could probably bring it down to 62 minutes. Is it worth the effort? I believe so. 62 minutes may be slow by the standards of most serious runners, but for me it would be an awesome achievement and a source of immense joy.
To get better at what you enjoy doing is a worthwhile goal in itself… the measure of success is how well you perform versus yourself, and how much you enjoy the journey.
