No You Can't!

Others may but I can't because of destiny. - Joseph Onilede

The world watched just a few years ago as President Barack Obama (then Democratic Party presidential candidate), of the United States of America, popularized the phrase, “Yes we can”. With it he led a vast majority of the people of the United States of America to self-belief in their personal capacity. Just saying those words brings along with it loads of motivation. More recently, in the just concluded British elections, the same cliche was brought into use.

For our lives though, the reality of what those words are capable of are more far-fetched than what merely uttering them can bring. Rather than saying “Yes I can”, I would rather we said “No I can’t”!

The word “Yes” is effective in bringing about great changes to anything or place but for you to effectively harness the power embedded in one “Yes”, you must be able to know how to say the opposite, “No”. When the power in a “No” is harnessed, the unlimited power in a “Yes” can be unlocked.

You must say, “No I can’t procrastinate another hour if I would see my dreams become reality.” Procrastination steals the future today. As we postpone what we should do for a later hour we short circuit how much we can accomplish in life.

You must say, “No I can’t conform to the crowd anymore.” The crowd is always wrong. Conformity to it will make us lose our uniqueness and hence remain stagnated to the spot the crowd is at.

You must say, “No I can’t go another week without reading a book.” It is true that readers lead all the time. If you will unlock your leadership potential you must read your way to it.

You must say, “No I can’t be one of my nation’s destroyers.” Your birth in your nation was not a mistake. There are some people that do not care about this and prove it by their destructive actions. Decide you will not be one of them.

There are obviously several things we must say “No we can’t” to. Only when we learn to say a firm “NO!” to all these vices we speak so much of but act little to change, will we begin to give ourselves the audacity to say “Yes we can”