Neuro-Linguistic Programing – NLP – has been a very helpful teaching in my life since discovering it years ago. It involves proven concepts about how we think and react, our attitudes and how we see things internally that impact our actions as well as our thoughts. One of the principles is expressed in the phrase "the map is not the territory." What we think is our reality irrespective of the actual facts. We experience our personal reality no matter what the facts actually might be. For that reason communication is not what we say or write to another. Communication is what that person hears or understands no matter what you intended. We create our own reality. This poem by Walter D. Wintle may seem trite to some, but express very well this idea of NLP.

If you think you are beaten, you are; If you think you dare not, you don’t; If you’d like to win, but think you can’t, It’s almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost; For out in the world we find Success begins with a fellow’s 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 be sure of yourself before you can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man; But soon or late the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.