Every month, I have the opportunity to meet dozens of people, each locked up in his or her own business environment. And it is amazing to hear how often  the phrase “I can’t” crops up.

There are many variations on a theme. I can’t or I don’t think I should go there or no way or – and this when I know that I have touched a very raw nerve – the client starts to complain about me to a higher authority.

I read today a blog describing phrases that Navy SEAL’s do not accept. Number one on the list is “I can’t do that”. According to the author, “if somebody had said this in the team , he would’ve found himself cold, wet and duct taped.” 

I am not a member of any army crack unit. So my approach as a business coach is somewhat different. For me, the “I can’t trigger” is usual a knee-jerk response. It relates back to something totally unrelated, maybe going years back. For example?

Well take a task as basic as ‘cold calling’. This requires a person to reach out by phone (usually) or even by email to others they do not know and then try to engage them in a commercial conversation. Nothing complex here. Yet many a person finds this daunting, even nerve-racking! They procrastinate and often simply never get round to the mission. In other words, they believe that they cannot…without even trying.

Why? Well the reasons can be many, including subconscious shouting in the ear from parents, still echoing after the years have gone by. The point is that the task led to an “I can’t” response.

There are many solutions, However, I want to point my readers in the direction of a quote attributed to David Ben Gurion. Starting off his career as farm labourer, he went on to become a charismatic Prime Minister of Israel, triumphantly and against the odds taking the country through two wars.

“Everything is impossible until somebody does it”.