Can she do it? YES SHE CAN! But she might not.

Warning: I am going to get all self-righteous-motivational-speaker on you.

Removing the word, "can't," from my vocabulary has been one of the most revealing things I've done for my personal wellness.  It's a cliched motivational-poster-type thing to say, but a really helpful thing to do.  I mean, when you really pay attention to the number of times you say you can't do something, it starts to take a toll on your self-esteem, doesn't it? Some people go through their entire day belittling themselves with reminders of all the things they are unable to do.  That must suck!

They can't eat healthy, they can't exercise, they can't get places on time, they can't do

wah wah wah. 

Yeah, get over it.  I'm busy too.  What they're really saying is, "I won't."  It could be, "I haven't yet," or "I don't want to," or "I didn't," but rarely is, "I can't," a true statement. To be clear, I am referring to things not bound by the laws of physics. :)

I hear it in the gym all the time and it just pisses me off.  Erika can tell you first-hand about when she told me she couldn't run.   How sad it must be to go through every day feeling like a miserable failure!  So I started challenging myself to really stop saying it and be more honest about what I was really saying.  After a while, I started applying that rule to my life outside of the gym, too.  At work, at home, and in relationships with people, I found that when I stopped short of saying I couldn't do something and honestly admitted that I just plain didn't want to, I had not done it yet, or I wasn't going to, I was a lot happier.  Maybe I am imagining things but I think the people I communicate with are happier too. :)

I often hear people say they can't live without sugar, can't wake up earlier to exercise, can't run or jump or whatever, and believe me there have been times when I have believed that about myself.  But I know we can, we just don't want to. And that's okay as long as we realize that some of our goals will not be fully realized until we do. 

Listen to yourself over the next few days.  How often do you catch yourself saying you can't?  What are you really saying?