The “I Can’t” Disease
Once upon a time, I worked the night shift as a temp for the Teacher Retirement System, helping to check thousands on thousands of scanned benefits documents for readability and re-scanning them if any important bits were obscured. During the nine months or so that I worked there (time kind of loses its meaning when you’re driving to work in the dark and driving home at sunrise), I shared the scanning equipment with maybe a half dozen coworkers who tended to come and go — the turnover rate was fairly high, partly from people just getting sick of the job, and partly from firings.
The job was incredibly simple and repetitive, but it carried a daily quota of however-many images per shift. The sheer ease of the job led the supervisors to expect certain levels of speed and accuracy, and if you couldn’t cut it you were let go. It didn’t seem like a terribly high standard to me, but I’ll admit that some nights felt harder than others, and new recruits were usually flailing helplessly for at least a week before they got the hang of the job.
I remember one older lady coming to me during her first week, saying, “I need to ask you how you guys keep your numbers up. I can’t make my quota.”
Since I had no way of knowing what precisely she was having trouble with, I asked, “Are you starting and finishing the shift on time?”
“Sure,” she said. “I just can’t make my numbers.”
“Are you making mistakes and then having to go back and correct them?”
“Nope. I just can’t go fast enough.”
“Are you familiar with the computer program?”
“Yeah, I know what I’m supposed to do. I just can’t make my numbers.”
This game of 20 Questions went on, with the old lady supplying a continuous refrain of “I just can’t,” until I couldn’t think of anything else to ask or suggest. Ultimately, I couldn’t help her because I didn’t know what to tell her. Looking back it now, though, with several years’ business experience under my belt, I know exactly what I should have recommended:
“Stop saying ‘I can’t!’”
I’ve talked before about my preference for positive reinforcement over negative reinforcement in copywriting; I’ll never use a stick when a carrot will do. But if it’s true for marketing, maybe it’s just as true in everyday life.
Every time we say “I can’t,” our ears hear it, they send it to our brain, our brain records it, and we believe it. And we act on our beliefs. That’s how hypnotism works, for example, to disrupt bad habits, change attitudes, remove phobias, or help control pain. The brain decides to accept the suggestions given to it by the hypnotist, and it acts on those suggestions as part of a new belief system. This is also how self-esteem works. You don’t believe you are charming and confident because you are; you’re charming and confident because you believe you are.
Unfortunately, negative suggestions can work just as effectively as positive ones, often on a subliminal level. We might be feeding ourselves on a constant stream of negative reinforcement without ever realizing it. And it can be as innocuous as a simple “I can’t.”
We small business owners must avoid “I can’t” at all costs. “I can’t” will eat your business alive, and possibly you with it. Try “I choose to” instead. You’ll feel better. You might even find that you can.
