One-minute of a talk with high school students about fear of failure, self-belief, and the power of the words we speak to ourselves:
Sometimes a student comes up to me before a driving test and says: "Rabbi, please pray that I pass today, because I'm definitely going to fail."
And I tell them: If you walk in telling yourself "I'm going to fail", that becomes your own prayer, and that is the exact message your brain hears. Prayer and faith do not go hand in hand with defeating yourself in advance. They begin with believing that God gave you the strength to succeed.
What we tell ourselves before a big test in life matters just as much as how hard we prepared.
Rabbi Yoni Don-Yechiya
Rabbi of a Moshav community in the Galilee | Author & Speaker on Faith, Marriage & Parenting