The ‘I Won’t’ Breakthrough: Unleashing Your True Potential

“I can’t.”

Two short, yet crushing words.

Pre-prison, my biggest fear was public speaking. If you asked me to speak on stage, I would have said,

“I can’t.”

And I would have believed it whole-heartedly as if it were cast into the book of time as an indelible truth.

I delivered 4 keynotes in the past 8 days across three different states.

I love being on stage, and I’m grateful every day that this is what I do now.

What changed?

Lots of things, but for this article, I’m focusing on one key element.

“I can’t” wasn’t correct; it wasn’t true — no matter how much I believed it.

The accurate phrase was, “I won’t.”

I wasn’t incapable; I was unwilling.

I was unwilling to put myself out there, be seen and heard, and risk being rejected.

I was unwilling to try, unwilling to practice, unwilling to fail or succeed.

When I say, “I can’t,” I play the victim to my beliefs.

When I replace “I can’t” with “I won’t,” I have an opportunity to explore the feelings behind the unwillingness.