How often do you hear yourself or someone else say something like:
“It won’t work”
“It can’t be done”
“It didn’t work before therefore it wont work this time”
“It wont happen in my town”
Too often we generalise a little bit of knowledge of a past event out to include everything in the future – not very smart and it is very paralysing to human endeavour. This puts the operative person into the state of victimhood and helplessness and often sees us arguing for more and more limitation as our effectiveness reduces.
How about we come back to the common denominator in the above statements?
How about we consider the operative word? Its not about the thing, the external activity – it is about the operator – “I”, You, Me, “Us”
How about if you took the ‘t’ away?
Now we hear a more workable situation. The truth starts to emerge.
“I won’t work”
“I won’t do it”
“I didn’t make it work before therefore I can’t do it this time”
“I wont make it happen in my town”
The “I” makes the difference.
Now we have an admission of responsibility. We have an acknowledgement of ‘cause’. We have a recognition of limitation of inability. Now, we have a way forward. It may now be a matter of another intelligent question like HOW can I “work”, “do it”, “Make it work”, “Make it happen” and so forth.
So next time you hear yourself creating limits by losing the ownership of a statement, delete the “t” and reclaim the “I” and watch you work your magic.
