HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1986-07-02, Page 32Page 6
Graduates will be successful if they delete
the word 'can't' from their vocabularies
BY BOB SHRIEB,
Commencement means beginning. Com-
mencement begins to make, air your
previous years make sense. Life is a never
ending series of commencements. Once you
leave school is when you really start to
learn.
Life is a never ending beginning to learn
and grow and to find out how good you can
be and what you should be.
A university professor one overheard
graduating student say, "I'll never crac
another book" and he said they were thk
saddest words he'd ever heard.
Twenty-five to 50 years ago, that kind of
attitude was maybe okay. But, you
graduates and your generation. will pro-
bablyhave four careers each.
And, that's exciting. Your grandparents
got a job and stuck it out lill' they got a gold.
watch. How dull. ,.
'My generation usually has two careers.
I've had four and I'm still looking forward to
more. I never realized how much I could do
and can do if I had the time. I'm still trying
to figure out when I grow up. You live longer
that way. 4
So, I am in the process of commencement.
I left school at the end of Grade 10 and I
commenced to learn my craft during the
first year. The next year and a half I got
fired twice.
William James Rather says we know so
much about the human mind and what its
capacity is that most people only do five
things when they're capable of 100. Our
potential is infinite.
Let's get back to your commencement.
Twelve to 13 years ago, you commenced to
breath and commenced to live and form
habits. The habits you formed formed you
as a person. Habits like eating, walking,
t lking are formed by doing things over and
er.
How many of you believe practice makes
perfect? Practice makes permanent, makes
a habit.
The first timeYou were given a chance to
eat on your own, your parents gave you a
spoon and told you how to use it. They
stayed with you until you got it right or right
enough for them. Can you imagine how em-
barrasses . '2,s u'd be,if they hadn't? Some of
you would i • sitting with all that nice messy
food all down the front of you! In your hair,
all around your mouth. That'd be cool.
See, habitual practice makes perfect.
Wrong practice will make wrong perma-
nent. Anything worth doing is worth doing
badly. Would you agree? Why not?
You'd have never learned to eat, walk,
talk, read, throw a ball if you hadn't done it
badly at first right?
Even learning to smoke takes, time. First
time you inhale and then you cough and
choke and that's the time to give it up.
Learning the habit of talking is where 97
per cent of the world went wrong. They
started using the foulest four letter word
there is.
My bet is you own this negative foul four
letter word more than the positive three let-
ter word.
CAN'T.
The habitual use of this word will limit
your development more than anything else.
Anybody use this word? I don't. 0
Let me tell you something you may have
already figured out. You've got eyelids but
no earlids. Seventy-seven per cent of our
self -talk is ,negative. The way we talk to
ourselves, and we do all the time whether
you're aware of it or not, is negative.
When you say CAN'T your subconscious
doesn't question. It says to the conscious,
"Hear that? We don't have to worry about
storing that information for use. They said
CAN'T. CAN'T is a cancel word. Delete.
from useful information:
The first time you tried to eat you sitting
TOWN 0*-"4-60DERICH
WE EXTEND OUR SINCEREST
CONGRATULATIONS
TO THE,
CLASS OF '86
Wishing you
a world..
of success
Thomas Cook Travel Ltd.
59A Hamilton St., Goderich
N7A 3Y5
across from your two-year-old brother and
you saw what he did. But, you missed your
mouth completely. You said, "Nope, I can't
do that."
"Forget it. I mean look at that kid, man.
Zoom, right into the mouth. Me, I mush all
over my chin or into my ear."
What about walking. Your brothers and
sisters are running around the house and
you got up for the first time and splat.
Nope. Forget that too. Can't walk. •
You'd be the only one who came in here
tonight on all fours. COOOL! You can read
to a Grade 8 level and do math not feeding
yourself, not walking. 10',000th experiment.
You'd be the envy of all your peers, I've given up on hard things 50,000 times
wOuldn'tou? Neat kid. Valeditorian. But, for a day or two. Maybe I'm pigheaded.
look at him crawl across the stage to the
Life comes in cans. It will never come in
podiurn. can'ts.
But as a kid you weren't conditioned yet.
Eat, okay. Yeahlt. „ Remember what I said about earlids?
For weeks your mother thought this kid Every word you say, you here and act. on.
will never find his mouth. You found the What you say and do will commence to be a
walls, the front of her dress, your hair, your habit.
ear and then one day, "Hey look at me!" Remember can't is a habit, can't is a
Everything went straight in. And, good old misconduct penalty.
mom and dad praised you. " Success in life comes from the habit of us-
. bridentally, parents you should still do ing cans. You are what you think, what you
that. When they get Bs, ask them what's the go for,. what you do.
matter with a B+ or an A. The most powerful psychological force
What about 2 plus 2 is 5? there is is the belief that God is on your side,
When you started math, you got 5 because that the universe wants you to win.
you were doing it with the knowledge you I hope you never use the four letter word
had at the time. You didn't have enough. again. Life comes in cans.
Finally, you got enough knowledge for the
skill, you thought it was boring.
Today, you're cool. You know when to
quit. You go out for the ball team, strike out,
drop a few balls and get embarrassed. You
say you -can't play ball. You've got poor ball
genes. Darn parents gave me no baseball
genes. You won't sit on the bench and watch
the other turkeys jilay.
If you're not as good as the other guy, you
, CAN'T.
The worst sin you can commit against
yourself is comparing your weaknesses with
the other guy. Got that? CAN'T is throwing
dirt in your own face.
What would .happen 'if Terry Fox said I
CAN'T run with one leg, if the Wright
Brothers said they CAN'T get an aircraft off
the ground, if Edison said after 5000 failed
experiments that a lightbulb won't work.
Incidentally, when' they asked Edison how
it feels to fail, he said he didn't fail. He just
found 9999 ways that the light bulb wouldn't
Work.
Each time he found that way that wouldn't
work he was that much closer to one that
wanld. He had eliminated another
posMbility.
Every time you try something you might
fail. Everything worth doing is worth doing
wrong.
You can't say CAN'T until you put all your
desire and willingness and practice into it.
And, even then you won't be able to say you
can't because most people quit before the
11
- understanding gained by actual
knowledge cexperiencp
lear perception of truth
- something learned and kept,
in mind
DOMTAR INC.
Mine & Evaporator Plant
245 Regent St. Goderich 524-8338