Is There Power In A Word – Absolutely!

A mentor once told me that the word “can’t” means “won’t”.  What? He meant that I should empower myself through my words, rather than so often doing just the opposite.  Words mean things and, whether we like it or not, the words we choose either empower or disarm us.  Have you ever said you can’t do something – call someone, meet someone, be somewhere, accomplish something? Is that really true - or can you, but you choose not to - either by finding something more important to do or by negatively choosing to believe you can’t.  It’s a matter of honesty, choice and responsibility.  I remember my son (4 or 5 at the time) leaving his sled at the bottom of a small hill by our home.  I told him to bring it in, and he said “I can’t”.  A learning opportunity – I told him “can’t means won’t”, and he promptly said “alright then, I won’t!”  Now, that was funny, true and led to another lesson!  Bottom line: let’s own the words we choose and the actions they imply; otherwise, words like “can’t” will subconsciously teach us that we are not in control. To be sure, there will certainly be times when “can’t” really does apply, but I suspect it is far less than we think.  Remember, we are the sum total of the circumstances we’ve encountered and the choices we have made.