Dr. Mercola October 23 2007 142,180 views
Did you know that by simply removing one word from your vocabulary, and replacing it with another, you can put yourself in the driver’s seat and gain 100 percent control of your life?
More often than not, the word “CAN’T” is the culprit of your failures. By replacing “CAN’T” with “WON’T,” you open the door to asking yourself the right questions that may help you get out of your own imaginary prison.
Do you say “I can’t take a vacation,” or “I can’t get a better job”?
By changing those statements to, “I won’t take a vacation,” and “I won’t get a better job,” what questions are raised?
Why won’t you? What’s holding you back? What are you not willing to do to make it happen? Plenty of people have done those things, and are doing them right now as you’re reading this, so they’re obviously not real impossibilities!
Start your transformation by paying close attention to when and how you use the word “can’t,” and then repeat the sentence in your mind, replacing “can’t” with “won’t.” Analyze the sentence, and you may be in for an awakening.
SelfMadeChick.com September 28, 2007
The central key is to always avoid saying anything negative about yourself in the present or future tense. This is not lying. Because all of your failures were in the past.
It is perfectly acceptable to state that in the past, you had problems remembering your purse, your keys, or someone’s name, but you condemn yourself to a negative future when you tell the world that you always have trouble remembering names, your purse, or people’s names.
Your brain is highly susceptible to your language, so please be very careful with the words you chose to use when describing yourself or your behavior. Make it POSITIVE when you are talking about the present or future.
I think the author of this piece is an inspiring lady – taking the insights she discovered from analyzing her self-talk, ditching her unsatisfactory cubicle job, taking control of her own life and destiny, and now, just two years later, living the life of her dreams.
If one person can do it, you can do it too! On her website, she also gives kudos to Tim Ferriss’ Four-Hour Work Week, for inspiring her to reevaluate her priorities and taking control of how she spends her time. I too am a major fan of Tim Ferriss, and highly recommend his groundbreaking book to anyone who wants to work less, achieve more, and be more successful.
David Allen’s Getting Things Done is another great piece of work I can personally credit for helping me achieve so many of my goals. It’s one of the finest systems for getting you organized and clearing your mind. However, it falls short when it comes to limiting the amount of distracting inputs into your life, and this is where Tim Ferriss’ advice truly excels!
The Four-Hour Work Week may sound like a preposterous title, but I’ve read the book and it’s clearly not a joke. If you were to follow his system, you would still be actively engaged in activities – just not “typical work.” Instead, you’d be doing what you’re passionate about, and you’d learn to manage others efficiently to implement the projects you really want in your life.
Why is this important?
Because living a balanced life is crucial to your health!
Living with passion, actively engaged in pursuits that have personal meaning can have great impact on your mental, emotional and physical health. It can also free you up to take control of your health in mundane, yet crucial ways, such as having the time to prepare your own meals, using organic produce grown locally, and savoring every bite because you’re not rushing anywhere.
Last but not least – following your passion can empower not only you, but can help change the entire world.
If you are doing something just for the money, it will likely never make you truly fulfilled, and you will likely never be very successful with it. One of the major keys to success is to identify your passion and move towards it until you can do that full time.
I remember the following quotation from 1977 from an impressive source which I have forgotten for nearly 30 years but it now means so much..
"Be yourself, be yourself, how exciting life can be. If you were meant to be somebody else, then why in the heck are you me!"
Without going into massive detail, I have listened to all the 'experts' who have told me, or not told me what is wrong in the last two and a half years and it is through my own persistance and some help from one or two very good friends that I have got to the bottom of what my health problems are and the homeopathic way through these problems. Thank goodness that people like Dr. Mercola have dedicated themselves to helping others, rather than letting those who just want to prescribe drugs rule the roost.
Getting back to my quotation, I hope that this will provide help to one or two others as they read it.
Dear Islander, Thank you for explaining how to use "to beg the question"! Language is only a reliable tool when we keep it sharp. ("Bacteria" seems to have become a non-countable noun somewhere along the way. But I guess I'm quibbling.)
Very often these kinds of assertions are overstated and not contextualised. For instance there are certain circumstances where one "can't" do a certain thing, Viz, if I am playing chess and I have lost my queen and all my pieces and my oponent has all of his on the board, I "can't win" this is of course is an extreme example but my point is you can't always fix everything, some events leave residual effects. You go bad in business and as a result you go bankrupt you "CAN'T" start another business until after a period of time etc. I "can't" does always translate to I "won't". I prefer the more resonable approach to replace "I can't" with "I can" which also sets up a change in one's thinking pattern and opens up possibilities, but here again one must exercise a degree of rational thinking about what is possible and what can be done Viz, I may not be able to start another business just now, but I "can" do something that will prepare the groundwork for one in the future. To say I won't start a business is just plain nonsense. I've seen all these Tony Robbins evangelistic type positive thinking gurus make ridiculous statements, all the testimonies come from people who were either already successful or had the infrastructure to achieve outcomes simply by showing a bit courage and applying themselves in an unremarkable way. Psyching one'self up is fine but when it's anchored in the absurd notion that you can achieve absolutely anything regardless of your circumstances it just becomes a dangerous form of self deception. My advice is to carefully measure what resources one has at one's disposal and identify an achievable goal and say "I can".
Robertfox
Do or do not. There is no try.
- Yoda
If you like this article, go watch 'The Secret - Law of Attraction'
video.google.com/videohosted
or read:
The Science of Getting Rich - Wallace D Wattles, or the Bible for that matter, for more on how this works. The Henry Ford Quote mentioned above: 'whether you think you can, or whether you think you can't, your right' is very enlightening, for while he was evil, he was well informed an knew how to get what he wanted. This is about a deep seated law of reality and how our thoughts and preceptions and expectations shape our future, our world.
Many blessings to you for this phenomenal link! I liked the movie so much I sent several of my friends the link and am "playing it forward" - spreading the joy around my network of kindred spirits.
Keep Hope Alive - wherever you may roam, on land or sea or foam - as you sojourn down the boulevard, keep spreading joy!