I woke up this morning, checked my Facebook and found this link posted by a friend. http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/ It's pretty harsh, but honestly, I like that kind of truth. I've never felt so small and beaten down, but so motivated to be useful at the same time. It also got me thinking about something I've thought about many, many times that honestly grates against every one of my nerves.
"I CAN'T paint to save my life." Yes, you can.
"I CAN'T cook worth crap." Mmmmm yeah, you can.
"I just CAN'T hold onto my money." Sorry, but.......
"I just CAN'T bring myself to sit down and read a whole book." This one is personal...YES I CAN.
People always say that they can't do certain things, some more than others, as if they are completely incapable of doing so. The reality of it is, yes you can. How, you might ask? It's simple...you're a human. You've been genetically tweaked for hundreds of thousands of years to evolve into the higher brain powered creature you are today. So, to say that you can't do something, is a direct slap in the face to nature's hard work over all those years. Today we are capable of things we couldn't have even imagined to be possible, and not only because we've evolved larger brains and opposable thumbs, but because we've put time towards it.
What makes humans the most resilient creatures is our capacity for learning. For the first time, our younger generations are actually teaching their parents. This directly shows that the human race is continuing to evolve into more intelligent beings with each generation. With top speed information sharing at our fingertips, what's to stop each and every one of us from being rocket scientists? If you want to learn to do anything, I can guarantee there's a YouTube video out there to teach you how. Want to know more about a topic? There's a Google search for that. Our minds are literally unstoppable.
To think of it in a less worldly way, if you say you just simply can't paint, you could if you dedicated hours at a time each and every single day. Sure, it may take years for your art to be considered "good", but you could do it if you really put your mind to it. I know I could be a real reader if I actually made myself sit down with a book each and everyday until it became habit. My reading would become faster, my vocabulary would increase and who knows all the new and wonderful things I would learn, until my mind would start to crave it all on its own. The human brain feeds off of new information like a drug. I know that each and every one of you can say that at least once in your life, whether you've been in school or reading or just having a discussion with a friend, you've had a real realization of something after learning its whole truth. You can feel the light flooding into your dark brain as the information unfurls into a full blown info-map. It's a good feeling, a very good feeling in fact. You can't help but thinking about it more and more, relating specific times in your life that connect the dots to this very moment of knowledge. We NEED to learn, because genetically, we live for it. We've proven as a species that we are the intellects in this wild world.
So, if it's truly is in our heritage to learn, and it is indeed VERY possible to do anything, why do people say they can't do something? This is also very simple. Being the most intelligent creatures on our planet doesn't come without consequence. Being intelligent we have created hundreds of systems and gadgets simply to make our life easier, thus making us lazy. Very few people realize their potential as a human and those that do, don't want to face the reasons why they can't do something they may even want to do. Accepting the fact that you can't do something simply because you don't want to put your time or money into it or just because you don't want to get off the couch to do so is hard for anyone to do. So, they just simply say, they can't do it. Crisis averted.
Another reason why people will say they can't do something is because they don't enjoy doing the activity, but when faced by someone who enjoys it and is very good at it, it's much easier for us to say we're unable to rather than risk insulting them by saying their favourite pass time they've put so much time into is not enjoyable. Even though you don't enjoy something, doesn't mean you can't do it (I'm sure school proved that for many of you). You don't enjoy it, therefore you're not willing to put the time into perfecting it. Let's say, you tell me you can't play a musical instrument. The reality is you have no interest in playing one, therefore never bothered to gather the skills to do so. Let's say you even argue that you're tone deaf and have no musical sense. Who said playing music has anything to do with sound? If someone hands you a sheet of music and an instrument and you put the time into learning each note, you could play that piece of music perfectly, given the right time. That's not to say you'll enjoy it, or even that you can recognize that it sounds perfect, but it's in your blood to be ABLE to.
Let's move away from the mental field and talk about physical goals. "I can't play basketball because I can't jump higher than a foot". Physical commands run directly from your brain to your muscles. It's biomechanics, knowing where muscle groups are, what they are used for and how to use them properly. If you learn the physics of jumping, all that's left to do is to put the time in effort into practicing and building the correct muscle groups. You can't jump when you're a baby right? But you crawl, walk and eventually build enough muscle to run and jump. Learn, practice, evolve. Boom. Now you're an excellent jumper.
I do also realize that certain mental a physical disabilities prevent some people from doing certain things. That does NOT make you broken. Clearly evolution has separate plans in store for you. Stephen Hawking, Christopher Reeve, Helen Keller, Beethoven, Thomas Edison, just name a few. There have been countless people of all walks of life with mental or physical disabilities who continue to contribute. You are not broken and I don't mean for that to sound insensitive. I understand it's harder for people with disabilities to achieve their goals, but it just makes it more incredible when they do. The day you are deemed broken is the day you're in a wooden box six feet under (escape artists and magicians excluded).
Next time you tell yourself you can't do something, think about why you tell yourself that. Yes, it does mean facing some uncomfortable truths about your true motives, but the more you understand yourself, the more control you'll have over everything you do. You are a human; an elite, powerful intellect. Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't do something, even yourself. Evolution begs to differ.
Do you guys have something you tell yourself you can't do? Do you know why you don't do it? Do you think I'm out of place? I encourage any feedback you may have! Evolving our minds further starts with the sharing of information and opinions!
Thanks for reading! :D
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