Good Tuesday morning to you all. I hope that yesterday you learned to identify places in your life where you have spent years limiting yourself using the word “can’t.” Today we are going to address the very same idea, but with different words. I was doing my research for this blog a few days ago and one of my favorite online entrepreneurial writers had a blog post about this very subject.
If you follow Seth Godin you know he is a great writer about business and entrepreneurial ideas. I loved that we share thinking on so many ideas for business and business people. His post was called “Can’t or Won’t?” In it, he discussed how he once walked into a business to purchase something and as told “We can’t do that” and how it stuck with him. He said that, as a business, you just told the person who pays to keep you in a job and your business running “I’m sorry. I won’t take care of your needs.” It’s powerful when you think of it that way.
Well I wanted to take this to the point of personal growth. Not as a business idea, but as your personal growth idea. This will be a way for you to open up your thought process to realize your potential, thus giving you a bigger business, better relationships, stronger self-confidence.
Yesterday, we asked what places in life have you gotten to the point of saying “I can’t.” So, after you thought about that, and you began to change your beliefs, put action to it, did you still find yourself saying “I can’t”? If so, we need to ask a new question: do you really mean “I won’t do that”?
I understand the current world we are living in, the economy that we have and the money troubles that are going on in our world – not just here in America, but all over the world. Markets are failing, jobs are going, people are losing homes and lifestyles. Well let’s imagine you have no job, you have no income, and you are watching your savings and retirement investments go away little by little with no hope of replacing the income you once had. Then someone suggests an idea like starting a lawn mowing business? And you say “I can’t do that.” If you said that to me, I would turn to you and ask “Why can’t you?”
When you said “I can’t do that,” you might really have meant something else like, “I can’t make enough money to support myself.” Then I would explain how, if you build it over time, you could replace what you once made. Then you might say, “I can’t wait that long” or something similar. What you are really saying isn’t “I can’t”; what you are saying is “I won’t do that.”
Little by little this week we are going to cover these subjects and explain how each of these words really relates to one thing: “Opportunity.” I want you to learn to take the word “won’t” and change it into “Let me see how I can get that done for you.”
So now you ask what are some ways that I can turn my limiting thinking into “I’ll be glad to do that for you.” Here are a few steps to getting your life changed so you stop saying “I won’t do that” and change it to “I’ll be glad to do it.”
1. You have to learn to set your pride aside. In a post I read about leadership and service, the Idea was mentioned you can tell how good a leader you are from your view of those who serve you. After all, leadership is being willing to serve others. No matter what organizations you spend time in, or work for, or donate to, you must serve others. Be willing to serve and you will go much farther in life then you ever imagined.
2. Always look for a solution. There is no such thing in life as a problem that can’t be solved. Whether it be in your personal life, or your business life, a problem is only an opportunity to find another solution to make things better. Creating solutions to problems is what makes our world a better place. Each time a new business comes up with a solution that creates a company, it creates jobs, it creates wealth, it provides taxes to keep our government going. Change your mind to be a solution-finder rather than a problem-dweller.
3. Pass along to others. This is the great message from the ‘90s movie, Pay It Forward. Take your new attitude, with your problem-solving perspective, and move forward to help others. Last week I heard in our world when we work to help others first we must be able to help ourselves, then we move forward to helping others. The example I heard is taught on every commercial airplane flight I’ve ever taken. They tell you in the announcements that in case of loss of cabin pressure masks will fall from above. If you are traveling with someone who needs assistance, first put your own mask on then help others. I know many people in many areas other than the flights will tell you it should be the other way around: you should help others before you help yourself. Well if you can’t breathe to help others then you will both be out of air.
So take this to heart; it’s time to take away another word and make this place called earth a better place. If you find yourself saying “I can’t” there should be a true reason, not an excuse. And, I feel when you say “I won’t do something” your pride is actually saying “That is below me.” Take today and start turning your “won’t” into opportunities to make your world a better place.
I’m Tim Gillette, the Rocker Life Coach. It’s time for you to live the life you always wanted, to love what you do and those you share life with. Let us help you become a RockStar in your world
