Leave the Not, I’ll Take the Can

One of the worst words in the English language is cannot. People, myself included, have a dependency on this word which usually ends up in aiding a self-fulfilling prophecy. (That is what one predicts to come true about one’s future does because one believed it would come true.) If you believe you can’t do something, it usually means you aren’t able to.

I’ve struggled with this word my whole life. “I can’t…..” is a frequent statement of mine. However, I’ve decided to end that. I am tired of this pessimistic outlook, which really is affecting me. I’ve made a deal with myself that I will totally eliminate “cannot” from my vocabulary. I won’t use it anymore. Already, I’m starting to see little improvements and it’s becoming really worthwhile.

Cannot really is a harmful word. Sometimes, I would say something like “Well, I just really cannot hit that note.” And guess what? I couldn’t. In fact, most times I couldn’t and didn’t even try because I had convinced myself I couldn’t. But you can do lots of things with a practice and if you really put your mind to it! Instead of saying, “I can’t hit that note,” I started saying “Why have I been unable from hitting that note? What can I do differently?” That’s really all that has to be done. Instead of saying you can’t do something, figure out why you have been unable to do it. Maybe you’re a little rusty, maybe you hadn’t practiced it, who knows? You should just never say you can’t do it, especially until you try.

Now this does not apply to some things. For instance, I know I cannot juggle fire and I don’t really plan on trying to see if I can. That would be bad, especially because I know what I’m like when I juggle scarves. I need a lot of practice before I can juggle fire. But does that mean I will never be able to juggle fire? If I keep practicing I could. So even if I cannot do it now, that doesn’t mean I cannot do it later.

There are some instances when it is ok to use the word cannot. If I were to say, “I’m sorry I cannot meet you at three, I’m going to be at work from two to eight,” there really is a reason to say cannot and it is pretty impossible to meet them at three. Cases like that, its fine. That really doesn’t have any negative affects at all. However, if you were like me, you might rephrase it to “I am unable to meet you at three, I’m going to be at work from two to eight,” just so you could completely eliminate it from your vocabulary.

There really isn’t a reason for cannot. If you think you can’t, you can’t. Wouldn’t you rather be able to do things?