Smart – Mindset: 5 Ways To Go From ‘I Can’t’ to ‘I Can’!

We all go through times of hopelessness. We all experience a lack of confidence. But what ultimately determines our outcome is how we choose to make the best of a situation. I’m Anna Renderer and I’m here to help you become your best self today and everyday moving forward.

I’d like to focus on Smart Mindsets tips towards your sexy and confident self. (And be sure to download the free Planner I created that compliments what you’ll learn in this article. )

I often say that the body achieves what the mind believes. So what is it that keeps us from achieving things in our lives?

Is it circumstance?

Or bad choices?

Well I happen to believe that it’s a lack of a can-do attitude that holds many of us back.

In order to achieve our dreams, we have to constantly remind ourselves to level up and be present, but so often we allow our attitude to waiver and lose focus of what’s most important.

I want you to focus, focus, focus on a can-do attitude.

Don’t stray and don’t get distracted. Banish the word “can’t” from your vocabulary. Once you start doing that, you’ll see yourself moving toward your goals. And there are three big important benefits to this.

One, by refusing yourself the permission to use the word “can’t”, you are essentially strengthening your can-do attitude and helping yourself to achieve your life goals.

Secondly, you’re going to develop a stronger, more positive attitude and build up your ability to eliminate frustrations when failure or lack of progression occurs.

And three, by achieving more of your goals and making your dreams come true, you’ll naturally bring more satisfaction and happiness into your life.

But getting rid of “can’t” isn’t easy. Believe me I know. It’s engrained in us in so many ways that you may not even realize. And when the chips are down, the temptation is there to give in or give up.

It’s like running a marathon…

I’m just like you. I’ve gone through tough times in my life where the situation changed on me unexpectedly and giving up would seem like the sensible, if not comfortable, thing to do.

One particular incident always stands out in my mind. Back in 2007, I lived in San Diego. And like many people, I decided that the time was right to run a marathon.

So I did all the things you’re supposed to do. I trained. I got myself mentally prepared for the grueling task ahead. I felt as strong as ever. I did everything on my end that would prepare me for what was surely to be one of the most physically and mentally challenging things I would ever do in my life.

I started out that race with so much excitement and adrenaline. You can’t help it! My personal goal was to finish in under four hours, but I made sure to pace myself and didn’t start out too fast.

I’m cruising along, doing great in fact, and hit mile nineteen. Great. I was well on my way to finishing in under four hours.

Then at mile twenty-one I felt a tightness in my knee. So I did what any smart runner would do. I stopped and tried stretching it out a bit. The pain didn’t go away but I kept running anyway.

At mile twenty-three I was in excruciating pain. I couldn’t even bend my knee. I was in tears from the pain and was feeling destroyed by the idea that I might not finish the race. I was so close!

I even checked in with the medical tent to see what they could do for me. Nothing it turns out. It was up to me.

So I thought about it for a while, quickly contemplating my options, and decided to just keep walking. Well, maybe not walking, more like swinging my injured leg around to keep it straight.

I felt crushed. All the time I spent preparing and now it was being undone by something that I felt was beyond my control.

I had three miles left. And I was determined not to give up.

I started to jog a little. I could swing my leg around and give it a little hop. Hey, maybe I could make up some time like this.

Sure, it hurt. But walking at that pace would take forever and a day to finish.

With about a mile left to go, another runner came up alongside me. He too was struggling and, I’ll never forget this, he put my arm around his shoulder and said, “You know what? Let’s do this together.” And he supported me for the last half mile of the race.

I finished the race at four hours and eleven minutes.

I was so grateful to my new friend for helping me across that finish line. But I wouldn’t have even been there if I had given up when it seemed hopeless.

It was the will to make it happen that allowed me to finish the race. And you can do it, too.

Deleting “I can’t” from your personal vocabulary isn’t easy. But I’ve put together five steps to erase that word from your dictionary and the thought pattern from your mind. Are you ready?

Evaluate

In order to evaluate where in your life you are holding yourself back, you’ll need a brutal honesty that is hard for many people. We’re not trying to look at the obvious stuff. We’re trying to get deep.

Look at the interactions in your life. Are they filled with negativity and people that are telling you “can’t”?

Look at your lifestyle. Is it filled with limiting factors that don’t allow you to break through and become the person you know you can be?

And look at your language. Does the word “can’t” and other negatively associated words leave your mouth with such frequency that you don’t even notice sometimes?

Well, it’s time to evaluate those areas and others that I might not have mentioned. Evaluation means making a judgment call about what should stay or what should go. Take a look at the things in your life and get rid of anything that reinforces “I can’t” and start putting in its place the things that say loudly, “I can!”

Flip It

When you flip something, you turn it around or upside down. It’s an either or situation. There isn’t any nuance. Don’t think you can “sort of” do something. Don’t negotiate with “can’t”, as in “well, sometimes I can’t”.

Just flip it. Turn away from that can’t and don’t look back.

Write it down because you’ll need that stark reminder to keep you on track. Don’t wait a moment longer. Right now. Today. Flip it.

You have the power to do this and the change in your life will be profound. Turn that can’t into “I can” and reap all the rewards from that change of mindset.

If you want to go deeper on how to do this, be sure to click the button below to download your FREE Planner. 😉

Celebrate the small victories

Sometimes this long journey through life takes a while. The worst thing you can do is get frustrated when your accomplishments don’t happen as quickly as you would like.

But you know what? Along the way, there’s lots to celebrate. Small wins matter. Small steps are what’s sometimes needed for long journeys. You’re not going to overcome things in one giant stride. And you shouldn’t expect to.

Celebrate what you’ve won in those small little moments. Over a longer period of time, you’ll have a better sense of how far you’ve come.

Embrace those small things so you enjoy the journey. You can’t get to your goals without them.

Accept and love yourself

In today’s over sharing culture where social media is exposing us to so many more lives, it’s easy to get lost in what other people are doing and comparing ourselves to each other.

So many of us focus on what we don’t have or what we aren’t accomplishing. We gaze longingly at our neighbor’s good fortune or choices and say, “hey, why can’t I be like that?”

The answer is simple: you’re you. And that’s wonderful.

You need to accept yourself and really appreciate your gifts. You have so much to contribute to this world in ways big and small.

And when I say love yourself, I mean love yourself. Make it an active part of your mind and attitude. Be happy with who you are and become your biggest cheerleader. Once you do that, you’ll find that others will want to work with you and be around you. That’s a win win situation.

Get in the game

You know what lies ahead in your life. You’re going to face challenges that are going to make you want to quit. That’s to be expected.

So be prepared to overcome those obstacles.

You’re going to have nagging voices in the back of your mind that are going to try to stop you and tell you that you can’t. But don’t listen to them.

You are in control of your destiny and it begins with your attitude. Those voices don’t know your strengths and determination. You’ve got to expect and be ready for failure. Seriously, you do!

But realize this important point.

The more you fail, the closer you are to ultimately succeeding.

The only true failure is giving up. The only way to get to success is to fail. And fail. And, most likely, fail again. That’s called growth.

Wrap Up:

When you have that “I can” attitude, fears begin to leave your life. The actions you take, now that you’re not waiting to take action or sitting in fear of failure, allow you to grow through the experiences you’re trying.

As you begin to believe that you can do what you dream, that belief is going to grow stronger with each small win and your motivation is going to grow bigger and bigger with each challenge. And pretty soon, you will be loving and respecting the work you put in towards your dreams. Build that confidence with each new day!

Action Steps:

It’s time to take action.

• Instantly download your free Smart Steps Planner that I have created for you.  It’s going to help you pinpoint the easiest steps you can take to get everlasting change.
• Then I want you to write down your strengths and reasons that you love yourself. Can you do that?
• I want you to share this with a friend that has limiting beliefs about themselves. I want you help get them on their way to success because that will help you to remember success begins with the right attitude. Without that, your dreams remain just that: dreams.

If you have a dream and the ambition to get something going in your life, then don’t think about all the work that it’s going to take to get there! Just take that first step.

I’ll leave you with this question:

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?