A Powerful Mindset Won’t Grow a Leg Back but It Will Make You Live Like You Have More Than Two

What matters is what you see

The author and her family.

While scrolling through Instagram (I call it market research), I stumbled upon a comment that instantly froze me. “All this stuff about positive mindset is not gonna cure my autoimmune disease,” the author wrote — and I agree. Having a powerful mindset doesn’t protect you from hereditary diseases. Nor does it erase your social disadvantages or rewrite your past.

But that doesn’t mean your mindset can’t make your life better. In fact, it may be your best shot at a better future. My one-legged father is a great example.

The man with the magical leg

Growing up, I always thought that my friends’ fathers were strange. They didn’t cook. They didn’t clean. They didn’t play. Even more shocking, none of them ever took one of their legs off when they came home. In fact, my older sister thought my father’s artificial leg was some kind of magic, and so did I. The reality, of course, was much more bitter than that.

My Papa was a brilliant high-schooler who excelled at field hockey. During one of the games, he hit the big toe of his right foot. The next day he woke up burning with fever and drowning in a cold sweat. Tough as he was…