Practice the power of “I can”
In the classic children’s tale “The Little Engine That Could,” a small, inexperienced blue engine believed in herself and pulled a heavy load of toys and food up a steep mountain rail, all the while thinking, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” Spoiler alert: She summited the top of the mountain, and as she glided down the mountain having accomplished a difficult task, she thought to herself: “I knew I could, I knew I could, I knew I could.”
There is power in the “I can.” It’s called self-efficacy, or the idea that one can overcome a difficult situation to produce a positive outcome based on beliefs about his/her personal competence. In other words, if we believe in ourselves, the odds of succeeding are much, much higher. This is resiliency at its finest and is “critical to the success of healthy behavior changes,” explains Kate Hefferon and Ilona Boniwell, authors of Positive Psychology.
We cannot begin to establish lasting change in our personal development until we can believe in ourselves. Write it on your mirror, post it on your walls. Shout it out while jammin’ to an old-school boom box: I CAN DO IT. It’s not just a cheesy, trite reference to the hit 1996 film Space Jam (as in I hit myself so hard after I watched it). Whether you believe you can fly, touch the sky, or soar through that open door, a huge step in lasting change is self-efficacy: believing you can.
