Dr. Ellen Langer

that the way we define ourselves will determine the life we're going to live.

And that's also important because too often people say they can't.

Whatever it is, they can't.

And you can never prove that you can't.

There's no experiment that can prove that you can't.

All an experiment can prove is that if you do this, this may happen.

It doesn't tell you that there's no way for anything else to happen.

And then if you think about all of the advances the culture makes,

that you know the big ones are always things where everybody said it was impossible right it's impossible until somebody does and then it becomes possible then people don't learn from it because they think they always knew it and so they go on to the next thing that can't be and that when you realize that it's the doing of it the trying that's the fun uh not the end um you know you organize yourself differently around an activity i mean let's just take

Two instances come to mind.

I'm trying to think now.

They're blocking new thoughts.

So these are old thoughts.

But you're a little kid and you're in the elevator and you're trying to press the button and you can't reach it.

And so your parent picks you up and you go,

And then eventually you're able to hit, and at that point it's no longer fun.

I mean, when was the last time you got excited that you could hit the elevator?

Or if you were playing golf and you got a hole in one each time you swung the club.

There's no game there anymore.

It's the not knowing that makes it exciting.