“You weren’t an accident. You weren’t mass produced. You aren’t an assembly-line product. You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on the Earth by the Master Craftsman.”—Max Lucado


I have fallen in love with a video on YouTube, called: “Thumbs Up for Rock and Roll!” The video shows a five year old boy who just learned how to ride his bike. When his father asks him for any words of wisdom he has for other kids trying to learn how to ride a bike, the boy (whose helmet is swallowing half of his face) jumps up on the curb to deliver the following speech. In his squeaky five year old voice, he shouts: “Everybody! I know you can believe in yourself! If you believe in yourself, you will know how to ride a bike! If you don’t, you just keep “fracticing!” You will get the hang of it, I know it! If you . . . if you keep “fracticing”, you will get the hang of it . . . and then you can get better and better at it, and you . . . YOU CAN DO IT! Thumbs up everybody! Rock and Roll!” That little guy is going places: he’s going to accomplish great thing— all because he believes in himself.

Believing in yourself is a choice. You must choose to believe that you can do anything you set your mind to—anything at all—because you can. In fact, recent brain research tells us that with enough positive self-talk and positive visualization, anyone can learn to do almost anything. When I was five years old, I played the violin in the U.S. Senate Building. I was not the most talented five year old—in fact, I was still just a beginner. But I chose to believe anything was possible. I studied, practiced, and worked hard—and that’s how I got to where I was— and that’s how I’ll get to where I want to be.

Success leaves little hints for you. You see, to be successful, you turn to other successful people and ask them: “How did you get to where you are today?” All of them will say that they didn’t give up—they believed in themselves. . . When I first heard this, one thought came to my mind: Bogus. But it’s actually true! College dropouts don’t suddenly wake up as millionaires one day. When Bill Gates was developing Microsoft, the company was going to be sold. The buyer turned the offer down because he thought that people wouldn’t need to put computers in their homes. Now, Bill Gates is one of the richest men in the world! And take Alex Haley for example. He received 200 rejections before he published his book: “Roots”, which was later published in 37 languages—and he won the Pulitzer Prize for his work! People just don’t wake up with success. They believe in their dreams, they believe in their talents, they believe in their time well spent—they believe in positive thinking, and they believe that they can accomplish great things .

One thing I have noticed about successful people, is that they never say: “I can’t”, or, “I wish I were able to . . .”. I think the words “I can’t” actually disempower you. I had a teacher who once told me that our brains are designed to solve any problem and reach any goal that we give it. The words we say, and think, actually affect our body! Doctors in Texas, for example, were studying the effect of arthroscopic knee surgery. They assigned patients with bad knees to one of the three surgical procedures: scraping out the knee joint, washing out the joint, or doing nothing. During the “nothing” operation, the doctors only pretended to do the surgery—when in reality, they . . .well, did nothing. All of the patients experienced equal recovery because the brain expected the surgery to improve the knee, and it did.

Sometimes, I wonder where I will be in five years, what I will be doing, etc. And I often think of how I am going to get from where I am now, to where I want to be. And because I can believe in myself, I can accomplish anything. All I need to do is keep “fracticing”. Thumbs up everybody! Rock and Roll!