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Sunday Thought For The Day


Creative Commons License photo credit: Ham­burg­er­Jung


“All your life you are told the things you can­not do. All your life they will say you’re not good enough or strong enough or tal­ented enough; they will say you’re the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thou­sand times no, until all the no’s become mean­ing­less. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly.  AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES.” ~ Nike ad

Lance writes sto­ries from his heart, aim­ing to inspire and moti­vate, as you align more fully with YOUR true peak. When he’s not here, you can find him hang­ing out with his fam­ily, rid­ing a bike, or just gen­er­ally act­ing goofy.   Sign up for the Thoughts from the Tree­house newslet­ter and get addi­tional inspi­ra­tion in your email inbox!
Lance Ekum
View all posts by Lance Ekum

Comments

  1. Dave Fowler says:

    IT’s funny but as a soci­ety we don’t really eno­courage peo­ple to believe in them­selves. It’s such a shame. Nice thought Lance!

    Dave Fowler´s last blog post..The Crack Of Dawn

  2. brandi says:

    insanely appro­pri­ate and timely post for where I am in my life right now.

    thank you!

    brandi´s last blog post..no more of this play­ing small crap

  3. Liara Covert says:

    I believe peo­ple echo you can­not do things as a way to rein­force your con­fi­dence and faith in your abil­i­ties. If you think of a sapling that grows on the side of a rock in com­par­i­son to a sapling that grows in the shade of a for­est, you evolve to real­ize it is the chal­lenges we face that enable us to build resilience and resource­ful­ness. With­out being told some­thing is not pos­si­ble, some peo­ple are not moti­vated to prove they can.

  4. Katie says:

    Love it! :-)

    Katie´s last blog post..Plas­tic Gro­cery Bags…

  5. If they tell me “no” I’ll refuse to believe them! I learn from what they are say­ing, but it’s not going to stop me!

    Stacey / Cre­ate a Balance´s last blog post..Cel­e­brate Your Life Friday!

  6. Arswino says:

    It’s like a poem and a bit dif­fi­cult to under­stand. I had to read the whole thing twice to fig­ure out, but good post Lance.

    Arswino´s last blog post..Dare To Make Mis­take, The Next Step Towards The Top of Success

  7. Linda Abbit says:

    I could have just stopped at the photo this week, Lance, because danc­ing is a pas­sion of mine. That image speaks vol­umes and I love it!!

    Nike’s ads are always excel­lent — they cap­ti­vate me 90% of the time. An ath­lete who imme­di­ately came to mind after I read this is Kobe Bryant of the L.A. Lak­ers. I could almost hear him say­ing those words aloud.

    I think this quote espe­cially applies to artists and ath­letes, although we can all learn from it. Believ­ing in one­self, tak­ing action on those beliefs, and per­se­ver­ing no mat­ter what — all excel­lent traits to strive for.

    Linda Abbit´s last blog post..Funny Fri­days: Because It’s Bet­ter to Laugh than to Cry!

  8. bobbi says:

    man I am prinit­ing this out and post­ing it on my INSPIRATION board!!!! THanks LANCE!

    bobbi´s last blog post..Inher­shoes Guide to Stay­ing Fit Dur­ing the Hol­i­day Season

  9. Sagan says:

    That’s from a Nike ad? Wow, there are some amaz­ing writ­ers in the adver­tis­ing business!

    Beau­ti­ful thought– a great reminder to hold strong and be true to our beiefs.

  10. Yes, yes! The only thing I’d add is that, before you get to say YES to THEM, you need to say YES to SELF. This is exactly the idea of my blog, Yes to Me. (Sorry for my self-promotion — the energy of ads from Nike did it to me ^_^)

    Akemi “spir­i­tual entre­pre­neur” @ Yes to Me´s last blog post..Liv­ing Your Life Purpose

  11. Laurie says:

    When I look at the lives of peo­ple, the dif­fer­ence between them say­ing no or yes to them­selves and their dreams is a dif­fer­ence between liv­ing a life of medi­oc­rity and stat­uesque OR pas­sion and adven­ture. Seems like a no brain-er to me which one I choose to fol­low! I think an even big­ger ques­tion is why would you choose to say no?

  12. Yes! I’m told that I can’t start a blog about work hap­pi­ness, make it into a busi­ness and launch a speak­ing career. They are wrong. I’m only in the baby step process, but it’s grow­ing. Thanks Lance. I needed a lit­tle Sun­day boost.

    Karl — Work Happy Now´s last blog post..So You Want a Boost to Your Career? Try Seth Godin’s MBA program

  13. Lance says:

    @Dave — Whether oth­ers believe in us or not, we first need to believe in our­selves. If we can’t do that, then it’s going to be hard to reach the heights that are pos­si­ble for all of us. I like the angle you took on this one Dave!

    @Brandi — I find it very cool how we can come across things that we need to hear, at just the right time! I’m glad this quote meant some­thing to you Brandi!

    @Liara — What I think of when read­ing this, Liara, is that we DO have to have faith in our­selves first. That is a really impor­tant piece of the puz­zle. If we don’t have faith — then it prob­a­bly isn’t going to mat­ter much what other peo­ple say (good or bad).

    @Katie — Awe­some, thanks!

    @Stacey/Create A Bal­ance — I love your atti­tude Stacey! If we (indi­vid­u­ally) believe, it doesn’t mat­ter what any­one else thinks…

    @Arswino — I see the real point of this mes­sage as being that it doesn’t mat­ter what any­one else thinks or says. What mat­ters is what we believe. And if we believe we can, then we should keep on try­ing, keep on fight­ing, keep on achieving!

    @Linda — I loved the pic­ture too! Choos­ing a quote to go with it was the hard part (I enlisted the help of my wife to make the final deci­sion!). Danc­ing is a pas­sion of yours — very cool Linda! Nike just seems to really do well with their ads — many are very inspi­ra­tional. This does lend itself to ath­letes and artists. And I would ask — maybe we’re all artists of our own lives (or, at least, we can be)…in cre­at­ing the life we desire!

    @Bobbi — It is pretty inspir­ing isn’t it! I find the reminder in this mes­sage being that we CAN do what­ever we believe (no mat­ter what the rest of the world says) — and that’s a pretty pow­er­ful message!

    @Sagan — Nike sure has some great ads! The thought really is great — and a reminder that our beliefs are very impor­tant to us reach­ing the suc­cesses we desire.

    @Akemi — That’s the same thought I had when I first read this mes­sage — the impor­tance of get­ting our­selves to say “yes” — and how key that is in the whole process. With­out that, it really doesn’t mat­ter what oth­ers say or do — we’re already defeated if we haven’t said “yes” to our­selves. Self-promotion — no prob­lem, this fits perfectly!

    @Laurie — That’s a great point Lau­rie — the idea of medi­oc­rity. We CAN achieve so much, and that does require us first to believe in our­selves! To say “yes” to our dreams, our desires, our pas­sions! Why do peo­ple say “no”? I think “no” feels like a safe answer, when “yes” might not work (we might fail), or we’ll look fool­ish (because we’re doing some­thing “dif­fer­ent”). And yet — by say­ing “no” to our­selves, aren’t we really say­ing “no” to a real life we desire… This is a deep ques­tion Lau­rie… “No” seems safe, but in real­ity — if we’re not happy — how safe, really, is that answer? Good for you on choos­ing “yes” — you’ve got some very cool things going on!

    @Karl — You’re doing it Karl, isn’t that awe­some! As long as you con­tinue to believe, no mat­ter what every­one else thinks, you’ve still got “you”. Just so you know, though, I think what you’ve got going is very cool, and you’re well on your way to where you’re desir­ing to get to! I’m in your cor­ner!! “They” are wrong — you WILL do amaz­ing things!!

  14. My whole life was spent hear­ing “no” or ques­tion­ing my own abil­i­ties. It gets tir­ing and it takes a very coura­geous per­son to push through it. I agree with Dave Fowler — we are not encour­aged to be our best selves…in my expe­ri­ence it’s “odd” or arro­gant. My hus­band always says “It’s lonely at the top, Stace”. If you believe the no you are in the major­ity. If you choose oth­er­wise, it can be lonely! Find­ing oth­ers on the same path is critical.

  15. avtcoach says:

    It is so hard not to buy in to that way of think­ing isn’t it. Some­how, no mat­ter how hard we try we still hear those mes­sages of our youth. My record­ing must be on 8 track..I hope it will wear out soon…I need a DVR ver­sion!! :) Thanks for the thought!

    avtcoach´s last blog post..Sym­bols of Christ­mas Past

  16. Maya says:

    Grow­ing up, Nike ads really inspired me.
    They have it right — they really con­nect deep down.

    As for the quote — I am glad I said YES and I will con­tinue to do so. Stacey (cre­ate a bal­ance) said it very well!

    Maya´s last blog post..Slideshow: My Story — The Hap­pi­ness Habit

  17. Audra Krell says:

    I love the part about the no becom­ing mean­ing­less. I long for that day, when every­time I hear some­one say “you can’t because you’re not this or that” that it will mean noth­ing to me. Some­times a no inspires me to turn around and prove the world wrong, but still, I look for­ward to when oth­ers telling me “no” is sim­ply.….… meaningless.

    Audra Krell´s last blog post..Team­work Works for Me

  18. Cathy in NZ says:

    I have had some funny com­ments in recent years.…like in the last two years. When, out the blue, I could enroll in a BA at the Uni­ver­sity of Auckland.…I got some rather mixed comments.

    From a good man-friend “why do you want to do that!” (later changed his mind and is very supportive)

    From a much older close rel­a­tive “you don’t have the brains for that” much later like a few months ago “well of course you are depressed, you shouldn’t be at Uni!” (I wasn’t depressed, she just sug­gested that from the tired tone of my voice; I was just plain tired! noth­ing else!! )

    From acquain­tance, I had hardly know (belongs to a Club I had to resign from/Time restraints)…“what do you mean you’ve got another 2yrs. Last time I saw you, you said another 3wks” (me think­ing, where can I get a BA/P/T in 3wks!).…and then she added “what you are doing a BA, you can’t do that…how will you pay the loan, who will give you a job…and for that mat­ter you’ve too old to be think­ing you can get a job”

    And then there is a (younger than me) lec­turer at Uni…who makes this com­ment reg­u­lar­ily “you are very brave com­ing to Uni at your age” (I am not sure what this means, as I don’t feel quite that old.…)

    All these can seem like put­downs espe­cially when the tone of said voices sounds scathing.…yep, I some­times want to give up (appar­ently that is nor­mal!) but even after fail­ing paper this last Semes­ter; I am back in the ‘sad­dle’ plan­ning next years papers. Although, with the fail­ure, it puts my fin­ish­ing date back 6mths.

    I am tak­ing the Sum­mer hols off (yes it’s sum­mer here in NZ now) to reju­ve­nate and play at being a layabout!!!

  19. CG Walters says:

    Yes we can, and Yes We Will!!
    bless­ings to you and your dear ones this week, Lance,
    CG

    CG Walters´s last blog post..Cel­e­braZine 05Dec08

  20. Davina says:

    Hi Lance. Thanks for the reminder! Every No is another step towards Yes.

    Davina´s last blog post..Step Out Of Cri­sis And Into Power

  21. Angel says:

    This is unbe­liev­ably true. Soci­ety is really good about telling peo­ple they are not capa­ble! As a trainer, I’m con­stantly remind­ing my clients that they can achieve any­thing. Yet, I often hear, “I can’t run any faster, I’m just not good at it, this is so hard”. And I always respond with, “Yes, you can. You can do it. I know it.”

    There usu­ally sur­prised and taken aback by this. It’s as if they’ve never heard any­one tell them that before.

    By the way, I don’t remem­ber giv­ing you per­mis­sion to post that pic­ture of me. (hahaha)

  22. Lance says:

    @Stacey Ship­man — Both of these — hear­ing “no” from oth­ers, and ques­tion­ing our­selves — can really have a way of lim­it­ing us from achiev­ing what is pos­si­ble. One of these we have no con­trol over (the “no” from oth­ers) while the other is com­pletely within our con­trol (ques­tion­ing ourselves/abilities). And when we really work on that which we have con­trol over — when we get to that point of really believ­ing in our­selves — new doors of pos­si­bil­ity can, and do, open! Get­ting there can take a lot of courage, espe­cially if we’re still hear­ing the “no’s” from oth­ers. Being our best selves, and being seen as odd, dif­fer­ent, arro­gant… very true. So, it can be lonely. And yet, it’s still a fight worth fight­ing for — a chance worth tak­ing — a life worth liv­ing! Really living…

    @Avtcoach — In a mes­sage that’s heard all too often — “no” — being able to really accept “yes” is not easy. I say get rid of the 8 track, and record a new “yes” mes­sage for all your desire!!

    @Maya — Nike really has done an excel­lent job of inspir­ing through their ads! And Stacey/Create A Bal­ance made a great point about how we don’t need to believe the “no’s” we hear in our life — what mat­ters is what we believe…

    @Audra — I’ve just re-read this quote Audra — and I see exactly what you’re say­ing. When we’ve heard “no” so much that it doesn’t mean a thing to us. That we get to the point of where it doesn’t mat­ter what oth­ers believe, it mat­ters what we believe. I look for­ward to that too — the day when oth­ers views don’t need to change the way I’m plan­ning to be the best “me” possible…

    @Cathy in NZ — Thank you for shar­ing these very con­crete exam­ples of this Nike slo­gan of “no” in action. That is exactly what we hear. We shouldn’t because we’re too old, too young, not smart enough, don’t have enough money, don’t have enough expe­ri­ence, etc, etc. And yet, who are we not to live out our dreams, chase our rain­bows, ride into our sun­set? Indeed, that is exactly what we should do — no mat­ter when in our life we decide it’s time to not lis­ten to the “no’s”. And that’s another point, it doesn’t mat­ter where we are at in our lives, we can turn these “no’s” from other into “yes’s” from us when­ever we are ready to do that! I say today is a great day to start!! Thank you, Cathy, for shar­ing today with us…

    @CG Wal­ters — “Yes” IS the answer we need to give our­selves more often…

    @Davina — Every no is another step toward yes, if we allow that to be the case. If we allow yes to enter our vocab­u­lary. And that’s the key, that we see each no we hear as another oppor­tu­nity for us to shout out our own yes’s!

    @Angel — That is a very cool pic­ture, and when I found it I just knew that’s what I wanted to use (I’ve always found the quote first in the past — this was dif­fer­ent find­ing a pic­ture that I really wanted to use first). So, you didn’t give me per­mis­sion to use it?!?!?!? What was I think­ing??? (Ha — you’re funny!!!!!). Being a trainer, part of your job has to be to encour­age peo­ple, and to help them reach deep within them­selves — how very cool to be able to do that for oth­ers. To give them the gift of “yes”! When we’re unsure of our­selves, a “no” from some­one else can sig­nal defeat. A “yes”, though, can be just the moti­va­tion needed to spur some­one on — to find that ray of hope that is within…

  23. Caroline says:

    What a great ad! I need to say “yes” to myself more! I just love this mes­sage, very powerful.

    Caroline´s last blog post..Fragility

  24. I think I lucked out… Grow­ing up, I was in “some­what” of a neg­a­tive envi­ron­ment. At least around school and the neigh­bor­hood any­way. My par­ents were ALWAYS encour­ag­ing. But teachers…not so much. At least not always. Some­times cousins were neg­a­tive (for what­ever reason)…

    Any­way, I some­how always man­aged to take that neg­a­tiv­ity in and turn it into the fuel that pushed me and moti­vated me for­ward. And that’s not always an easy thing to do…

    Ricardo Bueno´s last blog post..Yup…I’m Addicted to Social Media! You?

  25. Blake says:

    great thought. Thank you!

    Blake´s last blog post..Another Haiku Fri­day and Other Links

  26. Evelyn Lim says:

    I just love Nike Ads!! I am a Nike fan! The quote that you have is very inspir­ing!! It’s time to say Yes to Life!

    Eve­lyn Lim´s last blog post..Whose Pain Is This?

  27. Lance says:

    @Caroline — It is a great ad (and reminder) isn’t it! Here’s to say­ing “yes” more often!!

    @Ricardo — It’s not easy, and I find that you come across as both very encour­ag­ing and moti­vat­ing for oth­ers — you’ve done well Ricardo! And that’s a tes­ta­ment to you say­ing “yes”, even in the face of the many “no’s”. Very cool!

    @Blake — Your welcome!

    @Evelyn — I love their ads, too! They do very well at com­ing up with ads that inspire and moti­vate — and sell shoes! I’m with you, Eve­lyn, let’s all say “YES” to life!!

  28. Who’d have thought an adver­tis­ing depart­ment could churn out some­thing mean­ing­ful. Thanks for shar­ing this Lance.

    kelly

  29. chris says:

    Some­times hear­ing “NO” is a good thing, espe­cially if you had to much to drink or you are too hooked on credit cards. How­ever, when it comes to per­sonal devel­op­ment, the only one one should lis­ten to is one’s self.

    chris´s last blog post..I Shall Return

  30. Jenny says:

    I wish I could ignore the No’s, espe­cially the ones in my head! If any­one has a sure fire way to ignore one’s voices in their head, please let me know cuz I really need to start ignor­ing them and lis­ten­ing to the peo­ple who tell me I can do things!

    Jenny´s last blog post..Doing What’s Right

  31. Mark says:

    Great feed­back with so many valid points. You always get the wheels turn­ing my friend! :)

  32. I’ve found the biggest per­son say­ing “No” has been myself. When I find myself doing that I ask myself what’s the worst that can hap­pen. Usu­ally it’s that every­thing will stay the same. Not so bad really.

    Kim Wood­bridge | (Anti) Social Development´s last blog post..How to Get Free­lance Work with Twitter

  33. That came from a Nike Ad! Amazing.

    This is a good mes­sage for this time of year. So many are feel­ing dis­cour­aged and inad­e­quate and unloved. Thanks Lance. ;)

    Jamie Simmerman´s last blog post..Go Granny!

  34. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had that hap­pen to me! I just fin­ished leav­ing a com­ment at another blog where I told of how my Dad used to tell me I couldn’t do this or that becuase of my deaf­ness. He wasn’t the only one — lots of peo­ple have said the same thing, espe­cially when it came to my dreams of becom­ing a pilot or start­ing my own business.

    I’ve spent a life­time try­ing to prove them wrong but I’ve got­ten to the point in my life now where I no longer feel the need to do that.

    Awe­some reminder that even if peo­ple say no, you can still make your dreams come true — it’s just a mat­ter of find­ing the right peo­ple with the right mind­set and heart to join you in sup­port­ing your dreams.

    You go my friend!

    Stephen Hopson´s last blog post..Stephen Hop­son Inter­view with Himself….Again

  35. rummuser says:

    As a Mar­ket­ing man, I find this ad a fan­tas­tic one. Sub­tle, pow­er­ful and will sell the product.

    That you find it inspir­ing is suf­fi­cient proof that it car­ries a sub­lim­i­nal message!

    rummuser´s last blog post..BlogCrash — Com­mu­nity Forum

  36. Lance says:

    @Kelly — Nike does a pretty great job in the adver­tis­ing department!

    @Chris — Ha! Drinks, credit cards, that extra piece of cake (oh„ wait…maybe that’s ok!) — some­times “no” is a good thing! When it comes to “us”, though, really lis­ten­ing to our­selves is the key to achiev­ing what we desire. Good to see you around here Chris!

    @Jenny — Some­times the “no’s” in our own heads are the hard­est to ignore. And they are the ones that will def­i­nitely hold us back — we have to get over those — what other peo­ple say doesn’t mat­ter at all if we’re still deal­ing with the doubts in our own head. I think we all have been her Jenny. Self-doubt is easy to let creep in, if we don’t actively work at dis­pelling it. The views of oth­ers can also influ­ence our own think­ing, lead­ing to these “no’s” in our own minds. Sure fire way to ignore the voices in our head? I think it all depends on each per­son indi­vid­u­ally, and what works for them. For me, some­times it’s just “doing”. Other times, though, that isn’t the answer. Hav­ing some­one uplift­ing to bounce ideas off of is another great thing for me. My wife is great for this — while she is hon­est about what she says, she is also the first one to sup­port and encour­age me — and that type of sup­port is priceless.

    @Mark — Yes, the feed­back is what really is mak­ing this quote come alive! So much good stuff being said!

    @Kim — My exact thought when I read this quote too, Kim — I’m the biggest “no” in my life. Great way of look­ing at this Kim — at what the worst that can hap­pen is — because usu­ally that’s not nearly as bad as our mind might orig­i­nally think…

    @Jamie — I tend to think of the hol­i­days as a time of much love. And yet, you bring up a point I hadn’t con­sid­ered — that the hol­i­day sea­son for many is a tough time of year. And when inad­e­quacy starts to sneak in — this is a great mes­sage to remem­ber — that we all have so much pos­si­bil­ity within us — we just need to say “yes” and let it out! A great mes­sage indeed, this time of year!

    @Stephen — I think you epit­o­mize what this quote is all about Stephen! You are a true exam­ple, thank you for shar­ing part of your story here. It’s a story of great hope for all of us, for what is pos­si­ble if we really believe in our­selves. You, my friend, are at that point that Audra talked about above — reach­ing that point where the “no’s” of oth­ers are mean­ing­less — what a great place to get to! And another great point you’ve shared — is in hav­ing a great sup­port sys­tem to be with you along the way. While we can always say “yes” while oth­ers say “no”, hav­ing a few peo­ple in our cor­ner never hurts! Thanks again, Stephen, for shar­ing your per­spec­tive here — it adds so much to the conversation…

    @Rummuser — Nike did well, didn’t they! Not only does it work well to sell their prod­ucts, the under­ly­ing mes­sage that it leaves us with is really a very pro­found one. And one worth think­ing about…

  37. Laurie says:

    I know of a per­son who is blind. His mom is so great. She has never told him no, he couldn’t do some­thing. Once he asked to drive. She took him out in her car and let him drive it. She would describe every­thing and which way to turn the wheel and he drove around. Now he said he wouldn’t want his sight if he could get it. Sadly the rea­son is because he doesn’t want to see the pain in the world. There is pain, but there is also so much beauty. I wouldn’t want to miss out on that.

  38. Carla says:

    We have been told “no” so many times that its more com­fort­able to believe that you cant (so why bother?). I am in the process of chang­ing this around for myself. Unfor­tu­nately, its eas­ier said than done.

    Carla´s last blog post..Emperor “Clean Coal” has no clothes

  39. Natalia says:

    Wow I needed to read that today! I’ve been hav­ing such a hard time with myself lately. Thanks for that thought. It’s just what I needed! The only dif­fer­ence is it’s me telling myself NO! I need to kick that self to the curb and tell myself Yes AND believe it!!!

    Natalia´s last blog post..My son said…..

  40. Mindful Mimi says:

    Hi Lance,
    As a kid I was always told ‘You can do this, you can do every­thing’. So the con­trary of the Nike ad. I can tell you that as a kid and ado­les­cent this other extreme is not always ben­e­fi­cial for grow­ing up either. I at least got the feel­ing that since I could do every­thing, it was expected of me to suc­ceed. So the fear of fail­ure, or of not being good enough tends to creep up. And when you’re in puberty that’s not some­thing you need on top of all the other inse­cu­ri­ties.
    I found myself say­ing ‘You can do every­thing’ to my boy (goes to show that we do copy our par­ents… like it or not). I will try to make sure not to instill too many expec­ta­tions in him. But I guess no mat­ter what we do as par­ents, our kids will reproach us every­thing (or most of it) when they’re older :-) )

    Mind­ful Mimi´s last blog post..To be on Face­book or not to be on Facebook…

  41. Thanks for another great quote Lance! Yes, we can do and be what­ever we can imag­ine! I was lucky enough to have sup­port­ive par­ents — it was my own self lim­it­ing beliefs I had to over­come! :-) I truly believe ANYTHING is pos­si­ble and am so happy I proved it to myself while my kids were young so I can teach them the mes­sage as well! Thank you Lance! Love, Jenny

    Jenny Mannion´s last blog post..Top Ten Thought­ful Gift Ideas for Under $20

  42. @Liara and
    @Lance — and some saplings snap in the wind from the con­stant bat­ter­ing. Sorry, I can’t buy into the ‘builds char­ac­ter’ phi­los­o­phy of telling some­one they can’t do some­thing. Yes, we can all be moti­vated to do things ‘in spite of’ what oth­ers tell us. Me included. But when that hap­pens, I don’t feel good about my accom­plish­ment. I sim­ply feel vin­di­cated. How­ever, do accom­plish some­thing know­ing that fam­ily and friends have said “Ya! You can do this!” and I feel euphoric. And there is a far greater chance I will go on to repeat it, as opposed to the first instance, where it’s more of a one-shot I’ll show you deal.

    Urban Panther´s last blog post..I feel dense

  43. You have NO IDEA how badly I needed to hear THAT. Thank you.

    meleah rebeccah´s last blog post..Tags, Memes, And Awards

  44. Lance says:

    @Laurie — That’s a pretty awe­some story, Lau­rie! He’s grow­ing up with phys­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions, and yet, sounds like he is more pre­pared to deal with the our world than most peo­ple. That is a won­der­ful gift his mother is instill­ing in him, the belief in him­self, no mat­ter what. Very cool!

    @Carla — We hear “no” so much, we why even bother — when we reach that state, when we’ve heard “no” so much — that we believe we shouldn’t even bother — that is sad, and yet, true. Espe­cially if we have a hard time even try­ing to believe in our­selves. So, that’s great Carla — that you’re turn­ing these tables around in your life! It isn’t easy, yet, it is still so worth it. You’re worth it. The peo­ple you affect are worth it. You’re life is worth it!

    @Natalia — My thought, exactly, as I read this the first time, Natalia. How often is the “they” in that quote really our­selves say­ing “no”. And that’s the first “yes” we need to get to. To believe in our­selves. With­out that, the “no’s” from every­one else will drown out all our dreams. I wish you much suc­cess Natalia, in really get­ting to a true belief in “you” — YOU are worth it!

    @Mindful Mimi — My take away from what you’ve writ­ten, Mimi — is that fail­ure is good for us. Fail­ure in the sense that we see that life is not always one suc­cess after another. I still believe that hav­ing oth­ers believe in us is a good thing. Maybe a real­is­tic approach is to encour­age our chil­dren, believe in them, and also let them know that life does throw us curve balls once in a while. And that it’s okay when that hap­pens. I think that’s one of the real ben­e­fits of being on a sports team. See­ing the wins and the losses. See­ing that even though we may try our best, some­times our best isn’t good enough to win the game — because some­one else’s best was bet­ter that day. Now, about our kids as they become ado­les­cents — every­thing we say is wrong anyway!!

    @Jenny Man­nion — Your wel­come Jenny! Often, I think it is our own self-limiting belief in our­selves that holds us back. Cou­ple that with hear­ing “no” from other peo­ple enough — and pretty soon we can eas­ily fall into the trap of believ­ing our dreams and desires really don’t mat­ter at all. And yet, they most cer­tainly do! ANYTHING is pos­si­ble! And that will be a won­der­ful mes­sage you pass on to your chil­dren. Thank you, Jenny, for shar­ing how this has had an effect on your life, and how it’s also a mes­sage we can pass on to our own children!

    @Urban Pan­ther — You bring up a very excel­lent point Pan­ther. The idea of, when we’re not nur­tured, not encour­aged, some of us will break. Of course, for every per­son, how we deal with this is dif­fer­ent. And I agree with you com­pletely — the euphoric feel­ing when we accom­plish some­thing, that for us indi­vid­u­ally, is big — being able to have oth­ers share in that moment is really such an impor­tant piece of the puz­zle. Hav­ing peo­ple that believe in us can be such a huge thing, espe­cially if our own beliefs start to slip (think the saplings snap­ping in the wind — because no one is there to help them). On the other hand, being able to over­come, to believe in our­selves when no one else does — that can be very impor­tant too. Hope­fully this doesn’t hap­pen, yet when it does — this is really the time when believ­ing in our­selves is so impor­tant. Although, in the end, hav­ing oth­ers behind is makes the ride so much bet­ter… Urban Pan­ther, thank you for step­ping out and shar­ing that viewpoint.

    @Meleah — I’m really glad this was here for you today Meleah. I think that our world works in mys­te­ri­ous ways some­times, plac­ing things/people/events in our midst at just the moment we need them…

  45. Marelisa says:

    Hi Lance: Life is a mind game. You have to believe in your­self and your abil­i­ties despite naysay­ers. This Nike ad is a great way to remem­ber that.

  46. I have to stop MYSELF from doing this disservice.

    Thanks for the reminder, Lance. Btw, I nom­i­nated you for an award :-)

  47. Tammy Warren says:

    I guess in a self­ish way my first thought when I read this was “NOT ME.” I guess my prob­lem is not that peo­ple tell me what I can and can’t achieve it is the cir­cum­stances that tell me what I can and can’t achieve. I have con­quered one, I just need to work on the other.

    Tammy Warren´s last blog post..A Glance Into a Year of Blogging

  48. Squawkfox says:

    Good old Nike. :D

    When I signed up to do my first Iron­man in 2004, my fam­ily and many of my friends said I could not do it. “No way is that pos­si­ble,” they said. Ignor­ing them, I trained and believed com­plet­ing Iron­man was possible…if only I wanted it bad enough. I wanted it, bad. Since 2004, I’ve done Iron­man twice. :) Turns out run­ning a marathon after a 180KM bike ride and a 4KM swim is totally doable.

    Squawkfox´s last blog post..Print­able Sewing Pat­terns: Softie Christ­mas Tree

  49. Lance says:

    @Marelisa — “Life is a mind game” — yes, it is!! If we can just con­vince our own mind…

    @Jewel — I think we all have oppor­tu­ni­ties to stop our­selves — rec­og­niz­ing the “no” in our heads. Do we? Do we stop our­selves? Not enough. I really like how you’ve said this Jewel — thank you. And, I’m off to see what you’ve given me — my guess is you’ve been too kind to me — so THANK YOU, once again!!

    @Tammy — Ah, cir­cum­stances. What an excel­lent point, Tammy. Some­times it’s cir­cum­stances that we let stop us. I think of things like — I need to do “x” for my kids, so I can’t do “y” for myself. Or, we need a new roof on our house this year, so my plans to do “y” get put on hold. Etc, etc, etc. — there can always be a cir­cum­stance if we really look hard enough — so there can always be an excuse to choose “no”. This is very good Tammy — because I think this one does come up very often for peo­ple — you’ve really hit upon some­thing here. And this one can be just as hard, if not harder, to over­come than all the peo­ple out there telling us “no”…

    @Squawkfox — An Iron­man, that is com­pletely awe­some!! I’ve done sprint triathlons, so I know how dif­fi­cult this can be — and yet know that it is achiev­able. I never thought I’d be able to swim a 1/4 mile — and, while it’s still dif­fi­cult, I CAN do it! Because I believed in myself. That you’ve done an Iron­man — another exam­ple of what one per­son thinks is not doable — is! And, I love your last sen­tence here — about a marathon being totally doable after the bike and swim — very cool and pos­i­tive and uplift­ing!! I want to know more about your triathlon adventures!!

  50. miruspeg says:

    Hello Lance
    I’ve been read­ing your com­ments on dif­fer­ent blogs and thought it was about time I dropped in and read your blog.
    What a won­der­ful, insight, car­ing, inspi­ra­tional blog you have.

    Regard­ing this post I hope we have learnt how dam­ag­ing the word ‘NO’, ‘CANNOT’, ‘NOT’ can be planted in our sub­con­scious and takes an eter­nity to remove.
    Let us teach our chil­dren, our friend’s chil­dren, all chil­dren the words.…YES YOU CAN.
    And let us teach our­selves and each other the same.
    I am going to enjoy get­ting to know you Lance.
    Kind regards
    Peggy

    miruspeg´s last blog post..Namaste

  51. Lance says:

    @miruspeg — Thank you so much for your kind words Peggy! “NO” can be a very pow­er­ful word, and can debil­i­tate us, if we let it. It’s also impor­tant to remem­ber that we can say “YES” — even though this can be hard to do some­times. Teach­ing our kids that they “can” — what a great mes­sage to pass on to them! Or, really — to pass on to any­one! Thanks for vis­it­ing today Peggy…

  52. Klaus says:

    Thanks for using my photo here, you choosed a good text for the pic­ture :)

    Klaus´s last blog post..Next stop “Bei St Annen”

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