They Told Me Snow Was Green (And I Believed Them!)

It’s a beautiful, wintry morning in Michigan.

We have almost two inches of fresh snow.

When my daughter and I got up, it was still dark, so we turned on the porch light to see the snow, and she exclaimed “It looks like sparkles are falling from the sky.” (It did.)

My daughters love snow, and they’ve grown up with it, since we’ve lived in the Midwest all their lives.

I, however, grew up all over: an army brat.

Though I was born in Maryland and lived before age 3 in upstate NY, I spent ages 3 through 8 in Korea and Texas. As a result, when I was 8 years old and my family moved to Virginia, I couldn’t remember ever having seen snow.

The kids told me snow was green.

And I believed them.

Chalk it up to gullibility, suggestibility, or just plain silliness, but I really believed them.

Until it snowed.

And the snow was…. white.

Have you ever believed anything crazy, just because someone told you, and you had no evidence to contradict it?

I’d like to believe that we could apply this phenomenon to infuse others with confidence. We all need a little gullibility when it comes to believing in ourselves and our potential for growth.

What if I told you that you can achieve whatever it is you’ve been dreaming of ?

What if I told you that it was possible for you to write that book, start that business, make a significant difference for others?

And… what if you believed me?

What then?

It’s true that my belief that the snow was green did not make it so.

But if you believe that you can’t, that belief does make it so. So stop believing that you can’t.

Do me a favor, will you? Shake off the doubt, the insidious lack of confidence. Put your fears and questions in the darkest corner of your basement.

Instead, put on some child-like suggestibility. Be naive. Be gullible. Go ahead and try, for a moment, to be silly.

I’m telling you you can.

And I want  you to believe it.