About to squat 660 pounds...and he's 50 years old
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t - you’re right.” - Henry Ford
Words can empower us or weaken us. Choosing the right words for your inner voice is very important if you want to unleash the best you that’s waiting inside.
If you want to live your life to its highest potential and achieve all of your goals, then eliminate these belittling words, “I can’t”, from your vocabulary.
Here are 5 reasons why you should never say “I can’t”.
Just thinking that you can’t do something instantly weakens you.
Best-selling author, Jack Canfield, did an experiment at his seminars. A volunteer from the crowd would stand up, extend their arms and Jack instructed him/her to either think “I can” or “I can’t” over and over again.
When he tried to push down the arms of the people who were thinking I can, their arms did not budge. Those who were thinking, I can’t, he was able to push down almost instantly.
That’s just pushing down someone’s arm. How about using this theory to lift a car?
In 1977, a grandmother named Laura Schultz heard screaming from the driveway. Her grandson had been playing with the car and accidentally released the emergency brake. The car rolled onto his arm. She was a petite woman and said she had never lifted a thing over 50 pounds in her life. Yet she lifted the 2,000 pound car off to release her grandson’s arm.
After the incident, she was reluctant to speak about it with anyone. Finally persistence paid off for a doctor, who studied peak performers.
Laura said she didn’t like talking about the event because it challenged her beliefs about what she could and could not do. She said, “If I was able to do this when I didn’t think I could, what does that say about the rest of my life? Have I wasted it?”
The story has a happy ending. He convinced her that her life wasn’t over yet. She had a passion for geology, yet never pursued it. At sixty-three she went back to get her college degree. She later went on to teach geology at a local community college.
It can stop you from changing the world.
Henry Ford wanted to build the first V8 engine. He didn’t know how to do it, so he asked his highly qualified engineers to build it. According to them, a V8 engine was impossible, but Henry Ford wanted it. Ford would continually ask the men if they had it and they would continue to give reasons why they weren’t able to build it. This went on for many months until those same engineers, who said it couldn’t be done, built the V8 engine he wanted.
Henry Ford refused to believe it wasn’t possible even though his engineers were convinced it was impossible. He pushed them to think beyond their limits.
