IF YOU THINK
If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don't!
If you like to win, but think you can't,
It's almost a cinch you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you're lost;
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will;
It's all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You've got to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger and faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.

There is only one cause of unhappiness: The false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread,
so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them. Because of these false beliefs you see the world
and yourself in a distorted way. What makes it even worse is the fact that most people are so brainwashed that
they do not even realize how unhappy they are.

What are these false beliefs that block you from happiness? Here are some examples.

You cannot be happy without the things that you are attached to and that you consider so precious. False.
There is not a single moment in your life when you do not have everything that you need to be happy.

Think of that for a minute. The reason why you are unhappy is because you are focusing on what you do not have rather than on what you have right now.

Another belief: Happiness is in the future. Not true. Right here and now you are happy and you do not know it because your false beliefs and your
distorted perceptions have got you caught up in fears, anxieties, attachments, conflicts, guilt and a host of games that are programmed to play.

Yet another belief: Happiness will come if you manage to change the situation you are in and the people around you. Not true. You stupidly squander
so much energy trying to rearrange the world. If changing the world is your vocation in life, go right ahead and change it, but do not harbour the
illusion that this is going to make you happy.

What makes you happy or unhappy is not the world and the people around you, but the thinking in your head.

Wrong is the search for eagle’s nest on the bed of an ocean, and similarly wrong is the search for happiness in the world outside of you.

So if it is happiness that you seek, then you can stop wasting your energy trying to cure your baldness or build up an attractive body
or change your residence or job or community or lifestyle or even your personality.

Do you realize that you could change every one of these things, you could have the finest looks and the most charming personality and the
most pleasant of surroundings and still be unhappy?

And deep down you know this is true but still you waste your effort and energy trying to get what you know, cannot make you happy.



By Anthony De Mello, SJ