Why not believe this?

When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, my oncologist said "We're going to blast this out of you!" I believed him so completely that when we met post-treatment and he told me the odds of recurrence, I was shocked to find out the cure rate wasn't 100%. He made me feel so certain I'd be fine, that it simply didn't occur to me that I wouldn't get well.

Four years later, I was diagnosed with a heart infection. My cardiologist's approach was very different than my oncologist's. Rather than telling me I was going to be fine, she said: "You know how you hear of healthy high school athletes dropping dead on the playing field? They die of this." I spent the next several months feeling absolutely terrified that I was going to die at any second.

Two life-threatening situations, two completely different experiences. The big difference is what I believed. 

There is so much power in what we believe. All of this popped into my head recently as I discussed revenue projections with my bookkeeper. My business has grown over the past two years, and we're projecting even more growth for 2022. My first thought was "Um, I don't know if I can hit these numbers." My second thought was "You have to believe something. Why not believe you'll make this happen?" I'm going with that second thought.

I love this quote from the Pippi Longstocking books: "I have never tried that before so I think I should definitely be able to do that."

You have to believe something. You might as well believe you can do what you're setting out to do.