I Can't

I'm sick of my friends telling me that they can't. I'm sick of people saying that we can't. I'm sick of finding this same phrase playing over and over in my head, "I can't..."

My dear sweet mother once posted a little frame featuring a duck trying to hatch an egg twice its size (think a reverse of Dr. Seuss's Thorton the Elephant hatching a tiny egg) with the words "Never Say I Can't" written above the image. When I was young, I thought this was one of those idealistic sayings that didn't actually work. It held no real value because I knew that I couldn't. I couldn't drive a car. I couldn't dunk a basketball. I couldn't even run reach the top shelf of the cupboard where the candy bar was hidden. I was young. I was small. There were a lot of things that just seemed utterly impossible to me.

As I got older, I could drive a car, I could dunk a basketball, if I wanted (I have just never wanted to...yeah), and there wasn't a place my mom could put something that I couldn't get to easily. All of the things that I couldn't do before were suddenly well within my grasp, and all I had to do was grow up a bit ...Funny, huh?

The British Empire was one of the greatest super powers in the 18th century. In a time that defined power by the amount of money you had, the size of your militia (number of people, not bombs), and the number of colonies you ran, Britain was a major contender for the number one spot on the list of world powers. Britain had money, one of the biggest navy's around (something to be proud of for sure), and multiple colonies on every continent in the world. They were powerful. Not someone you would want to mess with.

Now imagine for a moment what it must have been like to be a part of that small group of 56 men who met together and decided to write a declaration to King George III, telling him and one of the biggest military forces of the time to stick it, they were no longer his. Do you think they were scared? Do you think they were tempted to say, "We can't do this"? I'm sure they did say this, when the idea was first muttered in a local bar by a disgruntled drunken Massachusetts man who was just taxed for a shipment of tea he received.

It took some planning, preparation, and a lot of guts, but instead of believing that they couldn't, the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and indeed the militia of the meager 13 colonies of the new United States of America, said, "We can!" . . . and they did. Because of their decision to believe they could, hundreds of thousands now enjoy the liberties they dreamed of ...Lucky, eh?

In one of the most beautiful stories of human civility and worldwide brotherhood that I have ever heard, American and German troops called a cease fire in the days leading up to Christmas during WWI. Troops from both sides were reported to have crossed no mans land during this time to greet, fellowship, and celebrate the joyous season with people who had recently been trying to get the better advantage and kill them for the past several months. These men formed a Christmas brotherhood. They buried their dead together, they sang Christmas songs together, and some were reported to have started up a friendly game of football. Now, for the first guy to put his arm around an enemy soldier and weep with him as he mourned the loss of a dear friend. Do you think that they thought for a moment, "I can't do this. I probably killed this man.  Is it considered treacherous to honor the death of an enemy soldier, to comfort his friend in this time of loss?" Do you think there was moral conflict within that guy? I would say there was. Even so, he still did it anyway and he formed a friendship ...Weird, right?

I think you know where I'm going with this. Every great thing that man has every accomplished has started with an "I can," although to be honest, it was probably preceded with an "I can't," a kick in the rear, and a step forward. Like DC's Green Lantern, we are only limited by the power of our imagination. Things that were previously thought the stuff of fantasy, are now the play things of little children (compare the hand held, touch screen computers in Star Trek to the iPad). The fact is, anything you dream of can be accomplished. You just need to get rid of the contraction, give yourself a kick start, and get moving in the right direction. And when you're tempted to think that "I can't," simply say instead that, "I haven't ...yet."

This is the inspiration for the name and purpose of my blog. My purpose is to lift you up when you're down, to inspire you to do the things you've always wanted to do, but have never done before. The best way to do that is to write about my own experiences battling the "I can't" montra, and get your feedback. There are so many difficult things that I want to do. So many hard things that I'm just not good at. But the desire to do them is there. And in the end, it's not that I can't, it's just that I haven't ...yet.

Here is most of my Ragnar team at the finish line. Each of us, excepting one, thought at some point during this race that we couldn't run another step. But as you can see, we could.