Wednesday, July 6, 2011

There's no such word......

When I was six years old, my father decided it was time to take the training wheels off my bicycle and teach me to ride for real. For the past couple of years, I had been zipping up and down our driveway or on the quiet street in front of our house safe and secure on my little bike with that extra set of tiny wheels. Learning to really ride a bicycle is probably an experience that most people never forget. It can be traumatic for some- once the security of those training wheels is taken away-you have nothing to depend on but your own sense of balance. Several attempts are usually made to master the skill of bike riding. You fall, you get up, you climb back on the bike again. It all really depends on how determined you are to actually do it but I cannot think of any child who didn't eventually learn to ride a bicycle without training wheels. It's our first real lesson in overcoming fear to accomplish a goal.


I screamed and cried when dad removed the training wheels from my bike and insisted I learn to ride it like a big girl. He took me out into the middle of the street and told me to pedal with my feet. He hung on to the back of the seat and pushed. Fear and terror gripped me but my father was so firm that I knew I had better listen, or else. The moment he let go, of course I fell. I fell several times. I begged him to give up this ridiculous idea and put the training wheels back on.

"I can't do it!" I cried.

"Can't?" he exclaimed. " There is not such word as can't!"

I climbed back up on my bike, unable to see through all my tears and tried again. And again. Each time I said I couldn't do it, he shouted back at me that I could and I would and the word can't did not exist!

I am sure you know what happened. I pedaled furiously as he ran behind me, his huge hand tightly gripping the back of the seat. He wasn't about to give up and I was more afraid of being discplined by him for not learning to ride my bike than I was of falling off the darn thing. Eventually he let go and I rode like the wind. All by myself. Thus began a new chapter in my life called FREEDOM. I was now able to ride my bicycle all over creation just like the other kids in the neighborhood. What I find truly amazing is no matter how much time goes by without actually riding a bike; as soon as I climb back on- I remember how to do it.

I have never forgotten how to ride a bike. I have also never forgotten my father's words to me that day:

"There is no such word as can't!"

He spoke the truth because I learned to ride a bicycle without training wheels. Forty-four years later, his message is as real to me as it was back then. I have lived my life believing that nothing is impossible. I have always achieved or mastered everything I have put my mind to because the word can't does not exist in my vocabulary. It hasn't always been easy. I have worked my fingers to the bone trying to accomplish goals and dreams. I have experienced disappointments and set-backs just everyone else. I just brush myself off and keep going- the same way I did when I learned to ride my bike.

I am not special. Nothing falls into my lap by change and I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. But then again, perhaps I was. The silver spoon being the unshakable belief that I can do anything, have anything, or be anything I want.

My father has taught me many great lessons. He taught me about faith, God, and the value of my good name. The greatest lesson of all is the one I learned when I was six years old, trying to ride a bike without training wheels.

"There is no such word as can't!"

The only thing that prevents you from having, doing, or being what you want is your own negativity. You see obstacles instead of a clear path. You see closed doors instead of doors that are wide-opened. You predict failure before you even begin to try. I can't do it, I can't have it, I can't become it......I can't! I can't! I can't!

Imagine the possibilities if you simply eliminated that word from your vocabulary. Turn every "I can't" into "I CAN!" You could do anything, go anywhere, be anything! The simple act of changing your negative attitude into a positive one can open doors you never imagined. Every obstacle would become an opportunity. Every door that is slammed in your face will lead you to a new door, a different path, or a window that you never saw before. You will never take no for answer and will keep asking until you finally get a yes.

I challenge you to take the word can't and toss it! Don't allow it to enter your mind. Never think it, never speak it to yourself or anyone else. You will have the power to change your life and the lives of others.....

Miracles will begin to happen.

They can and they will...........

And this is my Daily Cyn........

1 comment:

  1. A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again.

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