I Can Do This:
(Click for Audio) If I’ve said this to myself once, I’ve said it a hundred times. I’ll get better. I’ll improve. I can do this!
Too often these words come after we have been found out! You know. Not getting something done the way we promised or hoped. Especially when we are capable of doing the task and even exceeding!
Way too often, it’s a guilt trip. I didn’t ______________ hard enough. And you get to fill in the blank. Study. Prepare. Try. Practice. Plan. Execute. Document. Take Notes.
Just some of the words I’ve applied to the concept.
But there is another way of looking at this. Have you ever stood at the start of something and decided whether you wanted to attempt a task? You decide. Yes. No. No maybe’s exist. Once you decide to attempt, you should focus on completing. Remember that dusty keyboard or guitar in the closet? How many diets have you tried? Which exercise routine did the trick? Once you take up something that requires you work hard to hone your skills with repetitive practice, you should not so easily set it aside and say, “That’s not for me!”
Maybe we need a free space to TRY something before we commit to ACCOMPLISHING something.
I’m just thinking this morning. Out loud. We all have failures in our life that we look back at with remorse and regret. If only… We realize life takes great commitment. Some of life comes by practice, and some comes naturally, and there are some things we should just never attempt to do! Yet, many accomplishments come only by having a mentor, coach or other leader walk us through the exercise of doing until we reach the point of saying, “I can do this!”
There was a low point in my early life where I was caught between doing what I was good at, improving and moving on to the next better step, or doing something just to put a roof over our heads. I took a wrong step. Out of necessity, I felt to be an acceptable step until the first full day on the job. Suddenly, I knew this was not for me! It took a while to exit, and I did it poorly, but when the next step came I quickly took it. And it was better!
That taught me a lesson. If you keep repeating the false step, then you never learned from it previously.
Everything should teach us something.
Remember, some things you do out of necessity, not just because you enjoy it. My personal list is long of things I do, or have done, just because it was needed at the time. Enjoy? Not necessarily. Put up with it… Definitely. Chafed at the task? Sure. Gripe. Complain. Even moan the fact of my existence!
“But do it, you must.” ~Yoda
Remember, once you have completed something, you now have knowledge and power over the task. You can take it to another level!
“Do the thing and you will have the power.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson