by Brooke Guttenberg, M.S.

Sunday morning I woke up and thought to myself, “I just cannot get out of bed.” So then I fell back to sleep. A few hours later I thought, “I cannot go to the gym” and then I watched a movie instead. Later that night I told myself, “I cannot sit down to write this blog” and now I’m writing it on Monday.

Taking a look back on my slightly unproductive Sunday, I recognized that there was a common theme throughout the day. I could not stop “cannoting.” Well, actually I could now, couldn’t I?

While I may be using humor, there is a point to be made. Could I have gotten out of bed Sunday morning? Well of course I could, I just did not want to. Was I perfectly able to go to the gym? The answer is yes, I just preferred to watch a movie. Lastly, was I able to write the blog on Sunday? There was nothing stopping me except myself. The reality of the situation is that I could do all of those things, I just did not want to. What is the difference?

We may convince ourselves that it is impossible to accomplish certain tasks or take new risks, and as a result end up sabotaging ourselves and our success. It may be helpful to question our beliefs. For example, for an individual who believes he cannot clean his apartment, he could ask himself Would I clean for $1,000,000? If the answer is yes, then he is certainly capable of accomplishing the task. Then why will he not do it for his own well-being?

The more we tell ourselves we cannot the more our body starts to believe it.  Once we can acknowledge what we can do versus what we are not physically capable of doing, we can start getting out of our way and accomplishing our goals. For example, right now I could not run a marathon, but if I truly wanted to I could begin training and teach myself how to accomplish this feat.

At times we may not want to do things and it is important to determine what is stopping us. We may be demanding that things shouldbe a certain way and until they are we cannot possibly move forward on a task. For some of us, we my think that I could not stand doing it and therefore I cannot do it. Or, others may think that it is too terrible and horrible to face that situation and therefore I cannot do it. If we continue to maintain this rigid and illogical way of thinking there is little motivation to change our can’t dos to I don’t wannas, and what good will that do for our marathon running and blog writing?

Brooke Guttenberg, M.S.