Inspired to Reality

Nothing seems to stop people from achieving true happiness more than the simple phrase “I can’t.” Being guilty of saying it quite often myself, I look back and see how I erected a paper thin wall up every time there was something I thought I wanted, but in fact did not really want to do.

One day a good friend said a statement that hit me right between the eyes. If you want something, you’ll do it…If you don’t, you’ll make an excuse.

That is so simple, but so true that it really hurts to come to grips with it. For me it was starting my own business. I thought that I really wanted my own business. I had countless opportunities, but I always found myself making some excuse….I don’t have the time right now. Well I need to save up more money. I need a better education. I need a good unique idea. I need to meet someone that can help me. Now that I finally made a leap and started my own company I look back and think how naïve I really was. As an entrepreneur, I am quickly learning it is not education, the idea or the connections that bring success and joy…it is action. It is action that sets off the domino effect that brings all the other things you thought you needed to begin with.

We are all guilty of doing it. We make excuses all the time. However, where it really starts becoming a problem when we say we want something but we erect a paper wall because of some fear. This then locks us in some cyclical battle that has us complaining and confused about our life, but the answer was always within our grasp. For example, I constantly run into people that complain about their lack of money. Well what are you doing about it I ask? Then the list comes out….The economy is bad. Gasoline is too expensive. Taxes are too high. So on and so forth. I use to be one of those people, but now I realized there are only two things you can do if you need more money (1.) Spend less of it (2) Make more of it. Now you know the solution…what are you going to do about it.

Problem is, it is our own fears get in the way from solving the problem…not the outside forces we tend to blame instead. For example, if gas is so expensive, drive less…if you can’t, get a vehicle that burns less fuel. Afraid of what your friends will think if you trade the SUV in for a sub-compact? Point is we always have a choice to solve the problem. Deep inside us there are usually fears that we need to come to grips with if we want to do the things we need to do to start finding true happiness. Some fears are fabrications of our own imagination or out of shear ignorance. Some may be based on bad experiences. However, all can be overcome with a little faith and persistence. The first step is saying “I can” instead of “I can’t.”

Just about every fear can be simplified into a fear of losing something. Be it the respect of your peers, family and friends or something tangible like your money or your life, you can see that it focuses on losing something. When I talk to people who are struggling to get what they want, they tend to focus on the loss instead of the gain. They talk about actions that minimize their chances of losing. When I talk to people that are happy with their place in life, they tend to focus on the gain instead of the loss. They are talking about things that could bring more into their lives. This pattern I find is far from a coincidence. The happy people focus on “I can!” The strugglers focus on “I can’t.”

So this brings us to the lovable children story that we all most likely had as one of the first books ever read to us–The Little Engine that Could. As the story goes the little train engine kept saying on its way up the mountain…”I think I can. I think I can.” And as it peaked the mountain and was on its way down, it joyfully exclaimed…”I knew I could! I knew I could!” This may have been the first self-help book we ever heard and its message is true today as it was in kindergarten.

What you believe will always come true. Believe you can’t and you won’t. Believe you can and you will!

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