Image courtesy Despair.com
Where does “I can’t” come from?
Chances are if you are living primally or healthily, you have heard the phrase “I CAN’T live without bread” or “I COULDN’T live without my sugar fix”.
Fact: Its a darn good thing that our ancestors COULD or we would probably be pretty extinct right about now.
The bottom line is that yes… you CAN.
At some time during the development of our society, people began saying “I CAN’T” instead of “I WON’T”. There is a difference. My theory in this shift is that saying “I WON’T” admits a certain amount of personal responsibility where as “I CAN’T” does not make you take any ownership. We hate responsibility don’t we? The thought that we are responsible for our health and fitness and the way we live our life? Novel. Try it. Think about a time you have said “I CAN’T” or the next time you catch yourself saying “I CAN’T” and think to yourself if “I WON’T” might be more fitting.
Anyways, back to the task at hand. Now that we have determined that most anyone CAN, am I saying that everyone should or CAN for that matter go 100% healthy or primal immediately? Not by any means. I am saying lets focus not on what you CAN’T or WON’T do but on what you CAN do.
For Example:
You probably CAN survive your next lunch without that soda. Or you probably CAN do without the triple fudge chocolate cake your co-worker offers you. You probably CAN pass on that second trip to the pasta bar. You probably CAN avoid putting the croutons on the salad.
Take it one step at a time. Back off slowly. Do one thing that you CAN do and then do another. Before you know it you will be more healthy than you COULD have ever imagined and it will have been easier than you would have thought.
November 18th, 2008 - 12:33 am
SoG,
Great post! This is exactly what most people need to adopt in terms of a positive frame of mind. It’s all the negativity that prevents people from accomplishing their end results/goals. They just look too far ahead and get overwhelmed.
Thanks for the post!
All the Best,
Andrew R
November 18th, 2008 - 8:18 am
Excellent post! Very important for people to realize that success is predicated on changing habits. This is easier done, one crouton, or one lunch soda at a time. Focus on the day, one small chgange at a time adds up.
November 23rd, 2008 - 3:18 pm
I was half-@ssed doing the Primal Blueprint for a while. Then I started to pay attention to which foods made me feel like crap, all bloated up and wreaking havoc on my guts. Then they didn’t seem so attractive anymore because I was in pain for several hours until the bloating went down.
Once I made that connection, I felt free to steer clear of them alltogether. On days I felt good and energetic, I had a handful of walnuts, steak or beef stew at lunch, and steak and sweet potato for dinner. Nothing that made me puff up suddenly, and sort of fasting earlier in the day unintentionally.
Before I was like oh no I can’t go without pizza or corn bread or whatever carbed up item. When I realized I felt sleepy or bloated I stopped those items.
I didn’t start to see body composition changes until I got to that point where I was cutting stuff out to lose weight, but because it made me feel like crap.
TrailGrrl
November 23rd, 2008 - 5:59 pm
TrailGrrl,
Often we really don’t notice or realize what is making us feel icky or even that something IS. This is especially the case for things that we have done for a long time. I didn’t realize that a lot of my stress and anger and depression was even there until it was gone!
The SoG
November 24th, 2008 - 3:10 am
[...] A new and very cool website named after the well read author Son of Grok wrote a great article on Defeatist Attitudes! [...]