The Power of "Yet"

Ponder: 

I’m not strong enough. 

I’m not smart enough.  

We can’t hire the talent we need.  

I can’t figure out how to do this.  

Compare, and ponder: 

I’m not strong enough, yet. 

I’m not smart enough, yet.  

We can’t hire the talent we need, yet. 

I can’t figure out how to do this, yet. 

And there it is. Three letters, but it may as well be three thousand for all the impact they make. This tiny little word: "yet."

ONE WORD THAT CHANGES YOUR TRAJECTORY 

Without this one word, it can feel like the show is over, the mission has failed, the difficulties become death traps, and the world ends. With the word, you make space for more, anything is possible, everything is possible, and even better, the solution is just over the horizon, just around the corner, almost in your grasp. Again, compare and ponder:

• I can’t figure out how to write this blog with the clarity it needs to make an impact or make it worth writing = Never mind, I give up, the blog is never to be written, the task fails to be completed. I’ve lost. 

  
  

  VS. 

  
  

• I can’t figure out how to write this blog with the clarity it needs to make an impact and make it worth writing, yet = I’m still in the fight, it is worth more effort, all is not lost, I’ve got this, actually, I CAN do this, I will do this. All thanks to my friend, “yet.” 

It can be hard to change our own minds, to learn a new approach and incorporate it into our personal operating system. I get that. I hear and read all sorts of philosophies about winning at life. Many sound good to me, but leave me unanswered when I ask, “But how? How exactly do I do that?” 

With this blog, I’m sharing this incredibly manageable, doable tactic. It almost seems too simple to work. However, when you find yourself stating in absolute terms why you can’t do or accomplish something, build in a new habit to say, write, or type the word YET at the end. Go ahead, just try it. 

I won’t be able to make this a habit. 

I won’t be able to make this a habit, yet….and so, I’ll work on it, because I believe I can. 

Winning DNA seems to have this word woven deeply into its sequence. Dreamers, visionaries, game changers – none of them could do the thing or make their impact when they first started or first tried. They believed they could add the skills, develop the abilities, grow their own mind, harness the resources, and accomplish, or at least potentially accomplish the thing. None of us have everything we need right now to do everything we want to get done right now.  

USING “YET” AS A TOOL FOR GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT 

I know this seems too simple. It’s three letters. It should be easy enough for me to do, for you to do. Seriously, why don’t or why can’t we all just say, “I can’t do this _______ (insert the thing), YET.” 

I have been working on it and actually have come to enjoy the process. Going from “I can’t” to “I can’t, yet.” And then allowing myself to consider what I need to add, change, or even delete in myself or my current work to accomplish the thing. 

The journey that adding this simple word to our repertoire gives us – perspective, wisdom, fuel, and firepower – is worth taking, because the outcomes we envision are likely achievable. 

Of course, I get it – I can’t dunk a basketball, and I will never dunk a basketball, and for that, there is no yet. Obviously, I’m not talking here about the factually impossible. For pretty much everything else that doesn’t defy the laws of physics or the realm of possibility, I’m willing to believe a path may exist...if we make room for it. 

Try it. See what happens when you add these three simple letters. It could change the course of your life, or it could at least allow you to pursue something that has been dancing around in your mind that you weren’t certain you could do, yet.