There are three stages to change.
- You think you can’t do something.
- You’re forced to do it (or you’re brave enough to try).
- You find out that you actually can.
I used to think that I needed a few hours to write a blog post. One day, I decided to limit myself to just one hour. I finished the post in time. Now, an hour is all I need.
We used to assume that you needed advanced programming skills to create internet tools. In the late 1990s, a Stanford student had a vision for a breakthrough search engine, but he had only basic HTML skills. That forced him to code a bland search page with a simple box in the middle. And that’s how Google was born.
Theodore Geisel used to think that he needed complete artistic freedom to write a book. A publisher challenged him to write a book using only 50 words. The book, Green Eggs and Ham, became the best-selling book authored by Geisel, who’s better known as Dr. Seuss.
Can’t is a dangerous word. Sometimes, there are legitimate reasons for using it.
But most of the time, and for much of the world’s population, can’t simply means I don’t want to or I haven’t done this before, so I don’t know if I can.
The next time you think you can’t do something, give yourself permission to do it anyway.
Do it in a shorter amount of time than you think is reasonable.
Allow yourself fewer resources than you think you need.
And watch next-level magic happen.
