No more excuses: Yes, you can do it!

There is no doubt about it: You can do it! The only question is: Will you?

Dating myself here, but remember when you got in trouble in school? In some cases, the teacher made you “write lines”. Occasionally, depending on the severity of the punishment, she would make you write them on the chalkboard!

These lines of affirmation were an attempt to drill into the offending student the importance of not doing a particular thing. For example, “I will not talk in class” or “I will not pull Susie’s hair again during recess.”

These declarations were designed to reinforce positive behavior. We’ll have to ask some of the culprits if the exercise actually worked in these particular instances, but nonetheless, positive affirmation does have an impact. It changes the course of people’s lives. It lifts, it encourages, it inspires!

READ TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL ON PEACE

Hey, are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Have you come to the end of your rope and just hanging on? Are there things you’d like to do, but gave up? Stay with me here.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. I don’t have the money, the time, the resources, the talent or the circumstances the chase my dreams. “Besides, I’ve tried, and it didn’t work!” Listen up…

• Michael Jordan was cut from his junior high basketball team.
• Dave Ramsey filed for bankruptcy before becoming one of America’s leading financial teachers.
• Theodore Seuss Geisel‘s first book was rejected 27 times. You now rcognize him as Dr. Seuss.
• Harland Sanders was 65 and bankrupt before his Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe finally broke through.
• Movie executives once told Harrison Ford he didn’t have the “star factor”. That, of course, before he became a star in the Star Wars trilogy and Indiana Jones movies.
• J.K. Rowling battled depression, her first marriage failed and she was living on welfare. Then came Harry Potter.
• Charles Schulz had flunked eighth grade and had his cartoons rejected by his high school yearbook staff. Later in life, studios and publishers turned him down again. But he was persistent and most all of you have enjoyed Charlie Brown and Snoopy as a result.

I hear ya. People have told you that you can’t do it, you won’t make it, you’re over the hill or you’re not good enough. We’ve all believed the lies at one point in life, but now you have another shot. And, guess what: You are good enough, you can make it, no matter how old, young, tall, short or talented you are.

Friends, many people have become successful after hitting bottom or being told they were no-good-for-nothing losers. Here are some bread crumbs in the form of thoughts, suggestions and encouragement from some of the men and women who figured it out, beat the odds and climbed the mountain.

• Success will not wait. If I delay, she will become betrothed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the man. I will act now. ~Og Mandino.
• Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. ~Henry Ford.
• Do one thing every day that scares you. ~Eleanor Roosevelt.
• Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds. ~Napoleon Hill.
• You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win. ~Zig Ziglar.
• You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. ~John Maxwell.
• The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. ~Ayn Rand.
• The greatest breakthroughs in life will happen when you push through the fears. ~Mark Batterson.
• The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and starting on the first one. ~Mark Twain.
• What’s the one thing you can do today such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary? ~Gary Keller.
• Don’t let what you cannot do keep you from doing what you can do. ~John Wooden.
• Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days. ~Zig Ziglar.
• The person who really wants to do something finds a way; the others find an excuse. ~John Mason.
• Only those who are willing to risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. —T.S. Elliot
• You must walk to the beat of a different drummer. The same beat that the wealthy hear. If the beat sounds normal, evacuate the dance floor immediately! The goal is to not be normal because normal is broke. ~Dave Ramsey.

Any questions? Any excuses? It’s time to get out of the boat, stop straddling the fence and make a decision. Your choices today will determine your destiny tomorrow!

Now here’s where the affirmation comes in. Stop telling yourself that you can’t do it, that you aren’t good enough that you don’t have the talent. That has only buried you deep in discouragement and hopelessness.

I’m not your third-grade teacher, and you’ve done nothing wrong, but here is your assignment. No, I’m not going to make you write lines, but do this: Print off this article and cut out each individual quote above. Tape them on your refrigerator, on your bathroom mirror, on the dashboard of your car, on your bedside. Anywhere you’ll see it several times a day.

When you come across them, read them out loud. Out loud! You can even replace the “you” with your name! For example: “The greatest breakthroughs in life will happen when ___________ pushes through the fears.

Get rid of the “I can’t”, “I’m not good enough”, “I don’t have the time”, and other Negative Nellie thoughts and replace them with the good stuff. Humor me and just do it!

Get started on the road to positive thinking and affirmation. Tomorrow, we’ll discuss the tongue. Your tongue.