“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’s, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me…Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
Shel Silverstein
“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” Walt Disney
How many times have you heard the words, “You can’t do that?” How many times have you said it to yourself? Can’t, don’t, never, shouldn’t, couldn’t---all of us have limited our scope by the use of such words and their underlying beliefs. Here are some of their friends; I don’t have the money, don’t have the time, don’t have the energy, don’t have the skills.
I grew up in a time when there were definite limits to what a woman could do, for instance, in the workplace. My mother never painted a wall, climbed a ladder, dug a garden, drove a truck, or worked outside the home. She was a “lady” and ladies didn’t do those sorts of things. When I had my first job, she told me “get down off your high horse and go back to being a wife.” My mother is no longer with me, but her lessons definitely are. When I use an excuse such as “I can’t,” what I’m really saying is, “I won’t because I might fail, and I’m afraid of failing.” Opportunity lost.
Fear of failure is arguably the most limiting perception one can have about oneself—and the most inaccurate. We humans are capable of rising above the most incredible circumstances imaginable. That fact has been proven once again as we watch the Japanese people quietly go about the business of life in the midst of utter destruction. In Egypt Tunisia Libya
Next time you say, “I can’t,” check in with yourself. What is the perception, the fear, that is holding you back? Question it---push against it—recognize it as internalized oppression. “I can” is a possibility that lives---waving its freedom flag---within each of us.
Keeping the faith,
Jane
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