West River Eagle

I think I can, I think I can



Those who believe that change is an act of futility need to reassess their thinking.

Change is inevitable. It happens in slow increments or in sudden and disastrous waves. It happens when we make it happen, and it happens when we try to stop it.

To say nothing and no one changes is as naive as saying a person will never make a mistake.

Change is all about mistakes and failures. As much as it is about our  mishaps, it is also about our perseverance and innovation.

Change is not easy. It is both emotionally and psychologically exhausting. Often it is also physically exhausting.

The roadblocks to change rest in the minds and hearts of people who have chosen to believe in one simple and overused phrase, “I/We can’t.”

The “can’t do it” mindset fixes the person or group on a certain path. Let’s explore this mindset a bit more in-depth using a real-to-life scenario.

Let’s imagine that Jane Doe is challenged to run or walk the 5K race at the CRST Labor Day parade.

Jane is not a runner. She is out of shape and 25 pounds overweight.

One possible response to the challenge is that Jane takes into consideration the challenge, her desire to lose weight, her disdain for running or walking long distances, her lack of good shoes for either activity, and her desire to watch all of Game of Thrones over again, one episode after work each day until she has caught up with current episodes, and her need to care for her family in the midst of work, family and Thrones.

Jane, after weighing her options and reasons, decides she can’t start a workout program, because she just will not have time.

But let’s say she decides to give it a go, because her friend Linda says she will work out with her.

The first day, they take three laps around the track, jogging two straightaways. She’s winded and tired, but feels OK.

On day two, they do the same, but Jane is sore, and the jogging is a bit harder. On day three, Jane hurts with every move, the weather is either too hot or too cold, Linda has to work, and Jane says to herself she needs a rest, because she just can’t do it today, and she can’t do it without Linda. 

This is the beginning of the end for Jane. She has already allowed herself to see obstacles as impassible barriers. There will be other reasons to excuse the workouts, and when Labor Day comes, Jane will not be at the 5K start line, not because she could not have done it, but because she chose not to do it.

This is what we do to ourselves when we adopt an “I can’t” attitude. We talk ourselves out of the change, refuse to commit to its required sacrifices and hard choices.

“I can’t” is equivalent to “I won’t.”

One might argue that there are situations in which a person really cannot do something, like a person paralyzed can’t even walk, let alone run, so he or she may not be able to walk or run in the 5K.

In these instances, I still think there is an “I can.” He or she may not be able to walk or run, but what is stopping him or her from rolling that wheel chair down the road? Or being pushed by another walker or runner?

I was raised to wash my mouth and mind of “I can’t” and even “I’m trying.”

My parents taught me that limitations force creative thinking. If the path through the woods is blocked, go around, over, under or swing through the trees. My limitations are more from my lack of creativity than from external obstacles.

Psychotherapist Mel Schwartz wrote in a post on Psychology today, “The most important relationship you will ever have is with your beliefs and thoughts.”

American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “You are what you think all day long.”

In the Bible, Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”

“I can’t” should be replaced with the Little Engine that Could’s mantra, “I think I can.” In the 1906 version of the story, the Engine gets the cars up the hill alone, on sheer effort and willpower. In the 1930’s version, the engine is a female who gets help from another engine. I would have the engine take several cars up at a time rather than the whole lot, but in each case, the little engine takes on a monumental task and succeeds,  not limited by any belief that the impossible is unattainable.

Imagine what we could accomplish with such an attitude.

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