In the classic American folktale The Little Engine That Could, a small blue locomotive laboriously chugs up a hill hauling cars stuffed full of toys and food for children on the other side. The train engine wills herself up the steep incline by chanting: “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.”
Stories of sticking things out, often under the most trying circumstances, dominate Western society and, by extension, psychological literature, says Andreea Gavrila, a psychological expert at Université du Québec à Montréal in Canada. “We value perseverance and persistence.”
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