I Can’t Do That!
You would be
amazed at how many people say that sentence when it comes to getting out of
debt. They say “I CAN’T” save an
emergency fund, “I CAN’T” pay off my student loan, “I CAN’T” pay off my car
loan, “I CAN’T” stop eating out or going on vacations. I CAN’T, I CAN’T, I
CAN’T! Every time I hear someone say
those two words I think back to my childhood tennis coach David Lash who use to
always respond when I said “I can’t” with the question “are you American?” Confusingly I would say “yes” and then he would
continue with “you need to understand as an American you are an
Amer-I-CAN!” It was simple, but it made
sense. He always instilled in me that I
can do anything if I put my mind and energy into it.
I recently
learned of a single mother who had an annual salary of $21K and she paid off
$17K in eighteen months! This woman
obviously erased “I Can’t” from her mindset and instead buckled down, cut back,
and put all her extra money towards the debt.
She got to the point that she said to herself “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH” and she
made a life altering change to her finances and as a result she is DEBT FREE! People who don’t want to change their
financial situation usually come up with all kind of excuses. Excuses such as I don’t make enough money, I
deserve a vacation because I work so hard, I don’t have time to cook so I need
to go out to dinner, so on and so on.
What is really happening here is that the person has not reach the point
of ENOUGH and they continue to pile on debt and when ENOUGH does come, the reality
will set in of the opportunity lost because they continually said “I
can’t”.
I use to be
one of those closet “I can’t” people when it came to my finances, but then I
was slapped in the face with a lay off from my career. Right then and there I had to grow up and
realize that when I use to say “I can’t” I really was saying “I don’t want to”
because in my mind it was an inconvenience to the life I was use to
living. I would have to stop eating out,
buying new clothes, new shoes, going on vacations, etc if I wanted to truly get
out of debt and live a prosperous life.
Everyone has a choice to make when it comes to their own finances and
the first decision has to be to stop saying “I can’t” and replace it with “I
CAN!”
If you are
still in debt, after reading this will you move from “I can't” to “I can” and
change your financial future?
Wow. This one really resonated with me. I recently read an article that talked about the word "can't" and how it is a misnomer. When you say "can't" what you are really saying is "won't". Thank you for the single mom example and your own, you both clearly said "I won't be in debt, regardless of my circumstances". Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I think everyone has the power to become DEBT FREE!
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