Thoughts on "Believing in Yourself"

[LastPoet]

---

Hello everyone,

I was just wondering what everyone thinks of the popular philosophy that I see everywhere. It's on Oprah, in movies, and even in children's books.

I'm talking about the "believing in yourself" philosophy. That is, you can do anything if you just believe in yourself.

Personally, I can see the positive aspects of this philosophy. It gives us motivation to continue through hardships or to aspire for our dreams.

My critique is that this philosophy is not really realistic. I can aspire for my dreams, however, I still need other systems (such as getting help from others) in order to get to this so called "dream."

In other words, it is not sufficient in itself.

Thoughts?

---

Carlo Strenger on his book "Fear of insignificance" makes a good case on this issue.

My take is that positive thought is just a way to fool ourselves that life has no problems. It does and we must accept that hardship is a part of it. We should allow ourselves to be sad from time to time.