Can’t YET: Mind Your Own Business – Episode 13

This week I was taught a very valuable lesson by my six-year-old son Sammy. I was in the bathroom, shaving and he was talking to his sister in the bedroom and they were playing, building a car of some description and interestingly she had said to him – I can’t do this! and I heard him say “yet”.

Can’t YET: Mind Your Own Business – Episode 13

This week I was taught a very valuable lesson by my six-year-old son Sammy. I was in the bathroom, shaving and he was talking to his sister in the bedroom and they were playing, building a car of some description and interestingly she had said to him – I can’t do this! and I heard him say “yet”.

This week I was taught a very valuable lesson by my six-year-old son Sammy. I was in the bathroom, shaving and he was talking to his sister in the bedroom and they were playing, building a car of some description and interestingly she had said to him – I can’t do this! and I heard him say “yet”.

So I stopped what I was doing and listened in and what he had said to her is that you shouldn’t end a sentence on “can’t” you should end your sentence on “can’t… yet” and it was a very proud moment because I was listening to a six-year-old boy giving his big sister a life lesson and he was explaining to her that if you say “I can’t”, that means that you’re going to give up and you’re going to stop trying and you probably won’t but if you say “can’t… yet” that’s going to give you the determination to carry on trying.

So this got me thinking, where is this applicable in business and how is it applicable to me and how is it applicable to you where are you giving up, where are you letting yourself off the hook because you can’t do something is it that you feel that you can’t be a good leader or you can’t run successful meetings with your team members or you can’t put a strategic plan together or you can’t find good people to work with you or you can’t find the time to train your people.

Where are you letting yourself off the hook because you “can’t do something”? It’s exciting because our results in life reflect the effort and the activity that we put into it. If you don’t do something, if you give up on something, then obviously it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy you don’t get the results, and then it’s okay because you just “can’t do it”.

Now, I want to challenge you to add “yet” to any sentence that you ever utter that has the word “can’t” I can’t run good meetings… yet, but I’m going to try. I’m going to get better at it; I can’t find good people… yet, but I’m going to figure out how to find the right caliber people for my business. 

Pay that on to your team members if they say, “I can’t do something,” you need to pick them up and challenge them to say “yet” make them watch this video.

If you’re looking for more small business tips, then we’d like to see you every week on “Mind Your Own Business,”

Marco Soares is an award-winning business coach in Sussex and is available if you’d like help implementing these tactics.

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