She Believed She Could So She Did

My clients, friends and family know there's one word that gets under my skin more than any others: "can't". I should have been counting, but over the past 2 1/2 years in any training groups I have coached, if I heard that sneaky little word, as a team, we have all done 50 push ups as a reminder of how we use our words. I kid you not, we have done thousands of push ups during that time, hundreds in certain workouts.

I'm a believer of mind over matter. What you tell your mind your body will live out.

"I can't do 50 push ups."
"I can't reach down to tie my shoe."
"I can't keep from drinking diet coke."
"I can't run 1 mile."

When I hear the "c" word, I literally cringe because I know that the user is debilitating themselves with one little four letter, contracted word: "can't". Ouch.

My mom is 85. In a conversation with her yesterday, I bet she said "can't" a dozen times - in just a few minutes. It struck me that her ability, mobility and willingness was being paralyzed but how she was choosing to view the situation - she "couldn't". She was physically being disabled by the words she was using. 

Similarly, I coached a small group of little 8-9 year old wake boarders this summer and after 30 minutes had to take a time out and ask them to listen to their words. The C Bomb was flying. Of course, once I pointed it out to them, it became a game for them to see how many times they could say it because they knew it was getting under my skin. But truly, with the amount of time and money we spend on our kids assisting them to run faster, jump higher or surf farther, as a society, if we helped them empower themselves through their words, wouldn't that be one of the best gifts of all?

We believed we could so we did.
Yes, we can.

(and yes, I ordered the bracelet ;-)

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