State of Mind
by Dodie Bova
If you think you are beaten,
you are.
If you think that you dare not,
you don’t.
If you’d like to win,
but think you can’t,
It is almost a cinch you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose,
you’ve lost,
For out in the world you’ll find
Success begins with
a fellow’s will,
It’s all in the state of mind.
Fully many a race is lost
Ere even a step is run;
And many a coward fails
Ere his work is begun.
Think big,
and your deeds will grow,
Think small,
and you’ll fall behind;
Think that you can,
and you will —
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you’re outclassed,
you are.
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to think sure of
yourself before
You can ever win the prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But sooner or later,
the man that wins
Is the fellow who thinks he can.
What the mind can conceive and
believe, the mind can achieve.
The late Dodie Bova was the skating director at Centennial Ice Rink in Willamette, Ill., and served on the executive committee of the ISI Board of Directors. She was inducted into the ISI Hall of Fame in 1998.
