The Power of "Yet"

You will be surprised how just a small word can change everything. If you are asked to do something that you do not know how to do for example, instead of saying "I cannot do it," you can say "I have not learnt how to do it yet." The first statement puts a limitation on you, and may make you not to even try at all, while the second statement keeps your mind open to learn new things. There are people that, if they try something new and it does not seem to work, or it feels difficult, they will begin to consider quitting. Like trying to start a new business, learning a new language, acquiring a new skills, etc. At a point, they may even look at the progress and tell themselves that they cannot do it. But what they fail to understand is that because they have not done it yet does not mean that they cannot do it.

More often than not, if things get difficult or tough, your brain would want to protect you from failure. At that point, you may begin to convince yourself that you lack the talent or the required background connections to get it done. However, there is a weapon you can use to fight against these discouraging factors, and this is the power of "yet." When you shift your mind from "I cannot" to "I have not learnt it yet," you will be surprised how a lot of things will change. I have come to realise that when people say "I cannot," they shut their mind from a lot of possibilities that are in life. They even prevent themselves from seeing opportunities. Your future can be heavily decided by one single statement that you make to yourself.

One of my friends shared with me what happened at his place of work. He was employed at a big media agency because of his hand-drawn illustration that the manager saw. After a couple of weeks into the job, the manager gave him a task involving a very complex 3D animation. The truth is that, before that time, he had never used any 3D designing software in his life. When he opened the software, he looked at hundreds of different buttons, he got very confused. He spent hours trying to get around them, yet he could not even figure out what they do. He went home that day telling himself that he is only an illustrator, not a tech genius. He even concluded that he would be fired because he cannot obviously make use of the software. It was on a Friday, so he had the weekend to think about what to do.

By Saturday morning, he remembered the power of "yet," and told himself that he does not know how to use the 3D animation software yet, but it does not mean he will not use it. So he went to YouTube and searched for some video tutorials. The first video he came across, which was just about 10mins long, gave him a very fundamental insight about the software. With that, he got started. That was how started with learning the 3D design. As he was learning, he was practising with the task, and he was taking it step by step. It took him about 3 weeks of intense learning, with a lot of mistakes, then he finally got around it. Before the deadline his boss gave to him for the task, he was able to deliver it and he was impressed. You see, he shifted his mind from "cannot," to "yet." It was not easy, but he achieved it.

It is worthy to note that in order to build a habit of "yes," you need to change how you speak to yourself. Firstly, you need to remove negative thoughts and replace them with a positive way of thinking. How you think in your mind will determine how you see yourself, and will also influence your actions. If you think that you cannot, then you have already been defeated from within, and you will not see any reason to try. This is why you have to make your thoughts positive. After realigning your thoughts, the next thing is to focus on the steps, not on the finish line. If you want to run a marathon for example, you need to focus on the process, on the race, not on what the finish line looks like.

When you use the term "yet," you give yourself the permission to become a beginner. Everyone that gained mastery in a particular thing once started as a beginner. As a matter of fact, that you do not know something now does not mean that you will not know it tomorrow. When you begin, you may even make mistakes, but it is still part of the learning processes. It is true that growth takes times, but you have to start first in order to grow. So do not allow the fact that you do not know yet to prevent you from starting. No one is born knowing everything in the world, everyone started from somewhere, so start.

Thanks for reading