I carried my board back onto the beach. “I could never do that,”
a man walking by says. “I’d be too scared.”
“Sure you could,” I think as he walks away. Paddleboarding is
hard but not that hard. First you fall off. Then you fall off some
more. But soon you get better. And what’s to be afraid of? You
get wet and climb back on. Except for some occasional
embarrassment, the downside is no greater than that of jumping
in a swimming pool.
And very soon paddleboarding is relatively easy… and if it’s easy
for a nonathletic guy like me it can be easy for anyone.
You just have to be wiling to try.
I walked offstage after speaking to 4,500 people. A sound tech
shakes his head. “I could never do that,” he says.
“Sure you could,” I think. It’s hard, but not that hard. First you
struggle because you haven’t figured out what you might want
to say doesn’t matter — all that matters is what your audience
will benefit from hearing. Then you work and revise and find your
hook and your story. And you practice. And what’s to be afraid
of? That you’ll fail? Sometimes we bomb when we speak to one
person; the only difference is the degree.
And in time speaking is relatively easy… and if it’s relatively
easy for someone as shy and insecure as me , it can be fairly
easy for anyone.
You just have to be willing to try.
I climbed, stiff-legged and sore, off my bike after riding 92 miles
and climbing four mountains complete the inaugural Alpine Loop
Gran Fondo . “That was impressive,” a volunteer says as he
hands me a water bottle. “I could never do that.”
“Sure, you could,” I think. It was hard, but it was mainly just a
question of putting in the miles. First you ride 3 or 4 miles. Then
10 or so. In time you work up to 25-mile rides, then 50s. And
occasionally you throw in a longer ride.
Months of training later (in my case a little less than four), you
can finish a tough gran fondo… even if you’re a bird-legged old
guy who initially possessed the speed, power, and cardio fitness
of a possum.
You just have to be willing to try.
Life throws up enough barriers. Genetics. Education.
Intelligence. Athletic ability.
The list of reasons we can’t do certain things is endless. No
matter how hard I work I’ll never be as talented as LeBron
James. Or Allyson Felix. Or Serena Williams. Or Stephen King or
Stephen Hawking or Stephen Colbert.
They’re all bigger, stronger, faster, smarter, more creative, or
much funnier. The barriers I need to overcome to achieve that
level of talent are likely likely impossible to overcome. I can go
far…but probably not that far.
But then there are the hundreds of barriers we construct all on
our own without any justification. We don’t know we can’t; we
just decide we can’t. So we decide weshouldn’t.
We decide whatever we might want to do is too hard, too
challenging, or too scary for someone like us.
And that’s why five of the worst words you can ever say are, “I
could never do that.”
Because, in almost every case, you can. Maybe not to a world-
class level, but definitely to a high level. The biggest difference
between people like us and people who do things we would like
to do is they didn’t reflexively decide to put up their own barriers.
They didn’t automatically decide they can’t.
Instead they just decided to try…and then keep trying.
Granted we may never become Steve Jobs. Or Mark Cuban or
Richard Branson or Sara Blakely. The barriers to reaching their
level of success may be too high.
But you can still be a better you than you currently think
possible. You can still achieve amazing things…and average
things…and silly, frivolous things that have meaning only to you.
All you have to do is decide to try.
And once you decide to try one thing, you’ll quickly find you no
longer put up those barriers to any other things you “can’t” do.
You’ll be too busy enjoying all the things it turns out you can do,
and dreaming up more things to try.
Think about it this way. You can’t always control your level of
success, but you can control whether you take the first step
towards any level of success: deciding to try.
(And just in case you didn’t get the point: I’m definitely nothing
special, so if I can occasionally do somewhat challenging or
interesting things, imagine what you can do… if you just try.)
a man walking by says. “I’d be too scared.”
“Sure you could,” I think as he walks away. Paddleboarding is
hard but not that hard. First you fall off. Then you fall off some
more. But soon you get better. And what’s to be afraid of? You
get wet and climb back on. Except for some occasional
embarrassment, the downside is no greater than that of jumping
in a swimming pool.
And very soon paddleboarding is relatively easy… and if it’s easy
for a nonathletic guy like me it can be easy for anyone.
You just have to be wiling to try.
I walked offstage after speaking to 4,500 people. A sound tech
shakes his head. “I could never do that,” he says.
“Sure you could,” I think. It’s hard, but not that hard. First you
struggle because you haven’t figured out what you might want
to say doesn’t matter — all that matters is what your audience
will benefit from hearing. Then you work and revise and find your
hook and your story. And you practice. And what’s to be afraid
of? That you’ll fail? Sometimes we bomb when we speak to one
person; the only difference is the degree.
And in time speaking is relatively easy… and if it’s relatively
easy for someone as shy and insecure as me , it can be fairly
easy for anyone.
You just have to be willing to try.
I climbed, stiff-legged and sore, off my bike after riding 92 miles
and climbing four mountains complete the inaugural Alpine Loop
Gran Fondo . “That was impressive,” a volunteer says as he
hands me a water bottle. “I could never do that.”
“Sure, you could,” I think. It was hard, but it was mainly just a
question of putting in the miles. First you ride 3 or 4 miles. Then
10 or so. In time you work up to 25-mile rides, then 50s. And
occasionally you throw in a longer ride.
Months of training later (in my case a little less than four), you
can finish a tough gran fondo… even if you’re a bird-legged old
guy who initially possessed the speed, power, and cardio fitness
of a possum.
You just have to be willing to try.
Life throws up enough barriers. Genetics. Education.
Intelligence. Athletic ability.
The list of reasons we can’t do certain things is endless. No
matter how hard I work I’ll never be as talented as LeBron
James. Or Allyson Felix. Or Serena Williams. Or Stephen King or
Stephen Hawking or Stephen Colbert.
They’re all bigger, stronger, faster, smarter, more creative, or
much funnier. The barriers I need to overcome to achieve that
level of talent are likely likely impossible to overcome. I can go
far…but probably not that far.
But then there are the hundreds of barriers we construct all on
our own without any justification. We don’t know we can’t; we
just decide we can’t. So we decide weshouldn’t.
We decide whatever we might want to do is too hard, too
challenging, or too scary for someone like us.
And that’s why five of the worst words you can ever say are, “I
could never do that.”
Because, in almost every case, you can. Maybe not to a world-
class level, but definitely to a high level. The biggest difference
between people like us and people who do things we would like
to do is they didn’t reflexively decide to put up their own barriers.
They didn’t automatically decide they can’t.
Instead they just decided to try…and then keep trying.
Granted we may never become Steve Jobs. Or Mark Cuban or
Richard Branson or Sara Blakely. The barriers to reaching their
level of success may be too high.
But you can still be a better you than you currently think
possible. You can still achieve amazing things…and average
things…and silly, frivolous things that have meaning only to you.
All you have to do is decide to try.
And once you decide to try one thing, you’ll quickly find you no
longer put up those barriers to any other things you “can’t” do.
You’ll be too busy enjoying all the things it turns out you can do,
and dreaming up more things to try.
Think about it this way. You can’t always control your level of
success, but you can control whether you take the first step
towards any level of success: deciding to try.
(And just in case you didn’t get the point: I’m definitely nothing
special, so if I can occasionally do somewhat challenging or
interesting things, imagine what you can do… if you just try.)
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