Stop thinking Can I? and Start thinking How Can I?

If you ask a 10 year old boy, “Alfred, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

And he replies, “Oh I wanted to be like Tony Stark. I will make a robotic suite that will help me catch the villains in the world!”

Or ask a 7 year old girl, “Dora, what do you want to do when you grow up?”

“Uhm, I want to explore the world and meet new friends. I also want to have a companion in my journey. I will call him Boots!”

At the back of our minds we say, “Oh yeah, just wait 5 to 10 years from now. You’ll see.”

We belittle their dreams. We laugh at their dreams. We think they have unrealistic, impossible, out-of-reach dreams.

Why? Because in our hearts, we have accepted what the society think of our capacity. We allowed them to tell us who we are and what we’re capable of.

Sharing My Dream

Can I tell you one of my dreams?

I wanted to write a book. I wanted to share my thoughts, ideas, goals and experiences. I asked myself, “Can I write?”

Let me give you my background. When I was in grade school, every Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we had a spelling exam. On Monday the teacher will utter 15 new words and we will write each word, correctly spelled, on a piece of paper. We then check the words afterwards. I usually get (this is embarrassing but I will share anyway) 3 or 5 correctly spelled words. Now, some of you might say that it is all right because it is my first time to hear and spell those words. But on Wednesday and Friday we again spell the same 15 words and I get almost the same score: 7. (at least it improved). But I should now get a perfect score right? It’s the same 15 words!

In high school, our professor in English frequently gave us essay type exams. I remember when my paper was returned back to me, my gosh! It’s like world war 3 took place in that paper. There were a lot of red-ink scribbles and corrections. Corrections with the tense, grammar and coherence. Some of my classmates received an essay paper with a little bit of corrections. Me? I received a paper full of corrections with a little bit of essay.

That was me.

When I discovered my dream of writing a book, I asked myself right away, “Can I write?”

How Can I?

The problem with “Can I?” question is that it is a question filled with doubt and hesitation. It is a question that imposes limitations. If that is the question you regularly ask yourself, you’re undermining your efforts before you begin.

This is my question until I read one of John Maxwell’s books. He asserted, “Stop Thinking Can I? And Start Thinking How Can I?” He said, “When you ask yourself ‘How can I?’ you give yourself a fighting chance to achieve something. The most common reason people don’t overcome the odds is that they don’t challenge them enough. They don’t test their limits. They don’t push their capacity. ‘How Can I?’ assumes there is a way. You just need to find it.”

Blogging: A Step

And that is why I created this blog. I personally believe that in my level now, I still don’t have the capacity to write a book. But I also believe that I have the potential to write one. Blogging is my first step to harness my writing skills. It helps me to be committed in reading books, talking to people to get their ideas for me to write an article every week.

I may still have tense, grammar, coherence for corrections but I write anyway. I realized that I cannot improve my writing ability if I don’t write, correct along the way and then write and write and write.

Friends what are your dreams?

Stop thinking CAN I? and Start Thinking HOW CAN I?

Have a blessed weekend!