A debate

Yesterday while coming from Pune, I and my friend had a very nice debate! It was one of the best debates I have had till now (May be because I won it.:D). It started just with a small comment of mine on him. He said something that he can’t do it. And I just said – “If you think you can do it or if you think you can’t do it, you think right.”

Then the discussion went as follows -
Friend: This is only a thought made by big people which is published in some book and usually considered as a fact, which is not always true.

Pranali: How do you say that? If you say you can’t do something, how would you be able to believe on your ability? And ultimately you will result in failure.

Friend: I mean to say if you think you can do something, then you are right is not always true.

Pranali: (I’m reading “It’s not about bike” by Lance Armstrong, so his example came to my mind and I told him about it). This Lance Armstrong.. Once he had caught into a big accident and his legs were stitched. Doctor had told him to keep those stitches for 3 weeks. And Lance had some swimming training and along with that some swimming competition after 5 days. He couldn’t wait for 3 weeks. On 5th day, he cut all his stitches on his own and went for training. In the subsequent competition he stood third. The doctor himself couldn’t believe that after having such a huge surgery how he could win such competition. See, this guy had belief that he had the ability to swim in that competition.

Friend: He got famous, he wrote that book and hence you know that the thought you told above holds true. Think of some guy who was under the same situation. He also had that confidence and he went for competition. But in the mid of it, his legs got hurt so badly, that neither he won that competition nor he could swim at all after that. Such a person won’t get famous ever and won’t get to write about his experience. And even if he writes about it, that book won’t be famous as that person is not famous as he was failed in the competition. So you will never know that he believed he could do it but what happened? He lost his legs, and his belief got proved wrong.

Pranali: Even if he got hurt in the mid of competition, he must have swam for some distance which is also not possible for a person after getting caught into such huge accident. So still he won right? Now it depends on your definition of victory also.

Friend: But what had he thought? He can do it. But he couldn’t. So the above thought holds wrong. Whatever is your believed thought holds true only under some conditions. It is not always possible.

Pranali: If that person fails this time, if he tries next time he will win. If he fails again and he tries again, he will win. If he tries until he wins he will definitely win at some time. There is no end.

Friend: If while trying these things, he loses his legs completely, how is he going to win?

Pranali: See, you are putting abnormal conditions and then trying to prove that you are right. This is not fair. It is like you don’t have a computer and you say I can type on keyboard and I can see it on monitor though I don’t have computer. Without having the mean to do it, how would you ever think that you can do something?

Friend: I’ll give you an example of cricket match series which was held in Sharjah and it was a semi final match between India and Australia. If India was won, it’d have gone into finals. Sachin had told that he would play so well that he’ll take India into finals. He played really very well. But on a ball, umpire gave wrong decision and Sachin was told that he was out. Here, Sachin believed that he could have made India win the match. But he couldn’t. Now also your believed thought holds false here.

Pranali: Sachin believed his ability and he did as per that. Umpire’s wrong decision was an obstacle to his success, which was not under Sachin’s control. But he believed and he did as per his belief. He still had the ability to make India win the match.

Friend: But what is the result? Result made his belief to result false. So your believed thought is not always true. You should put *conditions applied* for it.

Pranali: I think you’re mixing things under our control and things which are not.
I’ll give you one more example. If you want to write a software or some piece of code which will work properly when it is embedded in some other code and in some properly working environment. If you think you can write it and you can make it work properly.

Friend: What if the environment goes wrong or the code in which I embed my code is itself wrong then what? It is not going to work, right? So again this thought went wrong.

Pranali: But here, did you yourself go wrong? There were other obstacles in your path which made your code don’t work. If it was nice environment and a properly working code in which you embedded it, your code would have worked.

Friend: That’s my point. Your belief is not always right. I know I can write code. But if obstacles which are not under my control come in my path then my belief will result false. So again you need to put *Conditions Applied* for your believed thought.

Pranali: Your code didn’t work. Reasons were other obstacles, not you. You have ability to write the code. Other things didn’t allow it to work; it doesn’t mean you can’t write code.

One simpler example, you know you can perform addition of any 2 integers. If I give you 2 integers you will add them correctly. Can you?

Friend: Yes.

Pranali: Now if you say I can add 2 integers using calculator. And now if calculator’s program is buggy then you won’t be able to add 2 integers correctly, right?

Friend: Right!

Pranali: So does that mean “you” can’t perform addition. Is it your ability that is doubted? So if you think you can do it, you are right.
Now if you think I can’t perform this addition using even a calculator. So you doubted your ability. Won’t your hands shiver while typing numbers on computer because you believed you can’t do that?

Friend: I think I’m brain washed. :D Let me think again. What was your believed thought? :D

Pranali: “If you think you can do it or if you think you can’t do it, you think right.”

Friend: I think I took the wrong meaning of it. I kept thinking about the actual happening of the event of our ability. Yes, I can do something if I really think I can do it. If I think I can’t do it, somewhere I’m lacking an ability to do it.

Pranali: Obstacles do come in path. But they don’t affect our ability. They only try to reduce the possibility of actual happening of event. But if I think I can do something I can do it, if not first time, next time. There is always a next time.

Isn’t it like Bhagvadgita’s message – “Fal ki apeksha na kar! And you’ll get the success of what you’re doing?”