I Can Never Do That" - How To Kill The Enemy Within.

Often times, we are our own worst enemy.

Why? We ourselves set up walls that prevent us from moving forward.

And we do this by saying things in our head.

Usually, it is along the lines of :- Oh I can never do XYZ, or I’m bad at XYZ”

XYZ could be writing, reading maps i.e. bad at directions, cooking, music, sports etc.

Try this the next time you are in a group. It happens especially with close friends, or where people warmed up to one another.

Just pay attention to what they say.

It usually starts when one person start telling old stories. If it doesn't happened, perhaps you can be the one to get the ball rolling. Start talking about so old story when you were in school or university.

For example, let's say you did something a bit crazy like bungee jump, or did something outrageous like stand up to the boss for something.

You may hear other people says things like, "Oh I can never to that!"

It's funny and most people have a good laugh.

However, if you think about it, often times, we say "I cannot do XYZ" in our own head. Or it can be different words like "I'm bad at maths, or remembering things" but it means the same thing.

You are telling your brain on a regular basis, that you are no good.

If you have children, and constantly tell them they are no good, guess what. Off course the problem with children today, is parents praise them for every little thing, which is a different topic for another time.

Maybe it is just an excuse to be lazy.

Have you ever consider that you may just be lazy and don’t want to do something?

And saying you are bad at it is just an excuse you give yourself not to learn a new skill?

But when circumstances force it upon us, over time, you find that you can get good at something you thought otherwise.

This happened to me several times

And I’m not saying this from the position of self help stuff. Those that goes along the lines of “fake it till you make it”. Yes, I've the books, attended the seminars. Been there, done that.

Last year that happened to me again!

Some time last year, I proudly told some friends, I absolutely hate doing repetitive task. I'd rather improve on a process and let a machine do it. I proclaimed, "I would die standing" if I have to do such repetitive task.

Fast forward a few months, circumstances dictated that I go do that repetitive task. I'd like to say I have no choice, but truth of the matter, the best choice at the time was to do that darn repetitive task.

Mind you it is a physically tiring task, requiring hours of work. And I have to do it for over several months.

Guess what? Didn't die. Still standing.

If fact, there were quite a few of other things I thought I could not do, but now, I'm rather good at it.

When I was a kid, right up to my teenage years, I've always struggled with maths. Multiplication and division was tough for me. I always thought I was bad at maths.

Back when I was in school, the only reason I managed to get decent grades for maths back was much help from my classmates who took the trouble to explain things to me.

Just before university, I had the option of either taking biology class or taking another maths paper.

Since I hated biology more that maths, maths it was.

My friends thought I must be mad. That was what I thought too. I really hate to cut into hearts and liver so, maths was the lesser evil.

I managed to scrap by and entered university to do engineering. More maths!

But something happened

I found that as I have to do more maths, my understand grew. And I got good at it. One time I was the top in the class of 3 combined classes. That took me by surprise.

If fact, I start to really enjoy it.

Heck, now I like maths, and find it an interesting challenge.

There were other things that I thought I was quite bad at initially as well, but over time I began to get better at it.

OriginalPhoto

One of it was photography. Now, I can create some decently good shots of things that don’t move.

You teaching what?

Another is teaching. I didn’t really think of myself at a teacher/instructor until many students started leaving good reviews for one of my online courses

Helping people learn a new skill felt great, and I've created several more online courses.

The next time you catch yourself saying you are not good at something, can I suggest that perhaps you haven’t decided to be good at it yet.

Don’t be so fast to put up barriers on what you cannot do.

At least give it a good try. Who knows, if you gave yourself a chance, you can be rather good at it.

Or, you may really suck at it but that’s okay.

You can be good at other things.

Follow along for more stories of my adventures. Till the next time adios.

#originalstory #originalphoto