As a man thinketh in his heart
A colleague of mine had a daughter in college pursuing a technology degree. It soon dawned on him that his daughter was challenged in Mathematics and needed help. And help was arranged for her by way of a private tutor.
After some weeks of private tuition, the girl got no better. She kept making mistakes she had repeatedly made before. And she did not look particularly interested in the subject. One day, the private tutor picked up his student’s exercise book and discovered something that explained the poor results he was getting from the girl—at the back of the exercise book she had written “I hate Mathematics.”
It is difficult to deal with problems whose source lies outside an individual. When the source is within the individual, those who try to assist often do so in vain. The poor girl had an attitudinal problem. Many people do.
You cannot prevail in Mathematics, or indeed in any other field, unless you are convinced within yourself that you have what it takes for you to be successful. By hating the subject, you distance yourself from it, and no amount of external help will inch you towards success in that field. The Bible puts it this way: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23: 7)”. It has often been stated that the sky is the limit, but let me proclaim it today that it is one’s mind that is the limit. If you think big, you will achieve big. If you think you cannot do it, you simply will not do it.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy made a statement which startled the world. He said: “Within a decade America will land man on the moon and bring him safely back home.” (or words to that effect). Did he know how this was going to be achieved? No. Did he know which man or men would accomplish this? No. Did he have any idea which technology would land man on the moon? He did not. All he knew was that his belief would be concretised by the agencies in his country despite that that had not achieved anything like it before.
We need to believe in our abilities to do things. This is not to say we should just wake up one morning and say: “I will accomplish such and such” without adequately preparing for it. That would be wishful thinking, and that is not what I am talking about.
In 1963, John Kennedy was assassinated but his dream was already owned by NASA. Prior to his death, Kennedy visited the NASA complex where he met many enthusiastic men and women working there. On the ground floor, he met a man who was sweeping. The president asked him: “What do you do here?” With a grin that stretched from ear to ear, the man, yes the sweeper, said to his President: “I am helping to put man on the moon.”
In July of 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin (popularly known as Buzz Aldrin) made the historic landing on the lunar surface. A third man, Michael Collins, who usually gets little credit and is consequently almost forgotten, stayed in the command module (the vehicle that kept orbiting the moon) as Neil and Buzz descended onto the surface of the moon aboard the lunar module.
There is not a tiny chance that this would have been possible if John Kennedy had not believed in it and if NASA had not prepared adequately for it. As those men thought in their hearts, so it became. Even the sweeper believed in the possibility of man one day landing on the moon. But they did not just believe and sit down. They all went into difficult preparations. They had, for example, to get acquainted with weightlessness or having to breathe from an air bottle, among others. Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins clocked so many flying hours in earth-bound equipment as they prepared for piloting Apollo 11 to the moon and back. Even Richard Nixon, the American President in 1969, carefully prepared the speech he would make after the men had reached the moon. He, by the way, had another speech written, which he would read in the event that the mission was not successful and that the brave men had perished in space.
So, you dear reader, need to believe in your abilities then take the necessary action to prepare for your task(s). That is what will bring you success. Search within yourself and discover which attitudes hold you back, then discard them. n
