MaryLyn At Home

…You just say that you can’t, and then it’s a self fulfilling prophesy.

Let me explain.

If you follow me on instagram, you’ll know that last week I was in the kitchen almost nonstop. With a bunch of my produce from the garden ripening, and some awesome deals I got from the local produce market, I had my hands full canning and processing over 20 pounds of produce. All of the produce had to be used that day, or it would be too far gone. I also had sourdough to bake for my weekly sale, and a 9 month old who was having a “I’m going to scream if mom even looks like she’s going to put me down.” kind of week.

My mind kept spitting out the phrase, “I just can’t do it. It’s too much.”, and I really wanted to give into that. It would have been so incredibly easy to just go sit on the couch with my son and accept a minimum spoil rate of 50% on all I’d worked so hard for.

That’s when I got tactical in my mind, and asked myself one simple question.

“Is it true that I’m actually unable to do this?”

The truth was, I was totally capable of getting the work done that I needed to. I was just feeling how hard it was going to be. I was frustrated that, of all days, this was the day my son wanted to be held. I was hot, hungry, and impatient to just have the work done.

But I had dumbed all those circumstantial obstacles down, and tried to make it an ability issue, in order to give myself an out.

I strapped my son into the baby carrier, put on a podcast that would give me something fun to think about, sipped some caffein, and got cracking. Before I knew it, the momentum of the project carried me along and I ended the day proud of what I’d accomplished.

I’m not telling you this to tell you how hard working I am. I’m telling you this because I’ll bet you tell yourself you can’t do things, too.

We so often say “I can’t.”. But if we’re honest, that usually isn’t the whole truth. Oftentimes what “I can’t” actually means is:

I’m tired.

I’m overwhelmed.

I’m afraid I’ll fail.

I’m overstimulated.

Or…I simply don’t want to.

Those are all real things, and if we decide they are worthy of abandoning the task at hand, that’s a decision you’re free to make.

But I propose to you that you ruthlessly remove the phrase, “I can’t” from your vocabulary, reserving it for the rare times when you actually don’t possess the ability to do something.

Because here’s the thing; we believe what we say. If you keep repeating the mantra “I can’t” to yourself, it will become true.

But if you’re honest and take a moment to evaluate the real issue, you give yourself an opportunity to move forward. The minute you replace, “I can’t” with, “why is this hard for me right now?” you switch your brain into problem solving mode.

You may still decide to not do the thing, and that’s fine! You don’t need to do everything in life.

Just don’t tell yourself you couldn’t, because I can guarantee you are gifted and smart enough to find a way.

-M