It has been said that a person is what they eat, what they read, or what they think. Solomon said, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Now, to these profound statements that identify the essence of a person’s being, I would add another, which says that a person is what they believe. You are not only what you consume physically or conceptualize or internalize mentally, but also what you think in your heart.
If you believe you can, then you can; if you cannot, you won’t be able to. Everything we do, from the simplest acts to the most complex tasks, requires us to believe in ourselves and our abilities to perform. Before we can get out of bed, or lift a fork, or speak a word, memorize a speech, or learn a lesson, or drive a car, quit smoking, or drinking, or overeating, or any other habit, we must believe we can. And if we don’t have the strength ourselves, then we must have enough faith to believe in God and his power of Christ to help us do what we think we cannot do ourselves.
Yes, we are what we believe. If we think we are nobodies, then nobodies are all we will ever be. No one can make you into a failure; you must do that yourself. No matter how many times you’ve tried and failed, you are never a failure until you begin to believe and consider yourself a loss.
You can keep trying as long as you don’t give up. You’ll hold your head up and bounce back no matter how often you’ve been discouraged, frustrated, or disappointed. But once you give up on yourself, on God, on life, on other people, then failure is inevitable. No person starts failing until that person begins to fall from the inside out.
Malcolm X once said that this society’s greatest crime against blacks was teaching us to hate ourselves. Self-hate, self-doubt, a lack of self-esteem and belief in self, and a lack of self-respect and pride have been and continue to be some of our most significant obstacles to being a genuinely free and victorious people.
As long as we are on the treadmill of self-hate and self-doubt that causes us to disrespect, deprecate, and kill each other, as long as we mug, burglarize, terrorize, and “do in” or try to get over on each other, as long as we fail to believe in each other, as long as we are “Illin and not Chillin,” then we will never, never, never reach our true and highest potential. When we fail to believe in ourselves, we are a disgrace to the God who made us. All things are possible if only we think.
It would be best to have dignity, pride, and respect for yourself, standing tall with your head held high because Everybody is Somebody.
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