"Whether you think you can or can't, you're right." -Henry Ford

"I think I can ... I think I can." -Little Engine That Could

Last week I was on vacation and the hotel I stayed at had an exercise room.  The first night there I went to the exercise room and wanted to use the bench press machine.  The pin was at the wrong weight.  I tried to change the pin but it was stuck.  I fiddled with it for a while, then assumed it must just be jammed stuck so I gave up.

The second night I went to the exercise room and saw that the pin was still set at the wrong weight.  I didn't even try to change it.

The third night I went to the exercise room and saw that the pin had been moved to a different weight.  I tried to change the pin and after a bit of wiggling and banging and thinking and feeling around, I discovered that there was a little button on the underside of the pin that you had to push in, in order to unlock the pin and pull it out.

Why did I fail the first two nights and succeed the third?  Simple.  The third night I *knew* there was a solution.  The first night I was defeated by doubt and the second night the doubt was reinforced to the point where I didn't even try.