Can vs. Want

Often the words “can” and “want” are confused. I’m here to show you that these words mean two completely different things and how you can apply that to your life.

I hear myself and others say the words “I can’t” when we really mean to say, “I don’t want”.

I’m a new huge believer in the common phrase “If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you can’t.”. We forget how powerful our minds are. By just believing you can, you’ll get further than you think.


“I can’t” is mind blocking phrase. The words “I can’t’ can be removed from your vocabulary by either changing that phrase into “I don’t want to” or “I can”. Next time you say the words “I can’t” think about if you really mean to say, “I don’t want”. If you realize barriers are the reason you are saying, “I can’t” all you have to do it change your attitude.  Think “I can” and you’ll realize it’s easy to move those barriers!


Take some time to think about what you want. If you think, "I can", then you will get what you want.

Now, the hard part is figuring out what you want. The other day I was swimming in the most beautiful swimming hole at the base of a waterfall in Thailand. My friends found a rope swing and right away climbed up the boulders to get to it. I sat there watching them fly off the rope swing into the water. And I kept thinking to myself “You know, you can do that too, if you want to”.

I have always been afraid of heights but somehow in New Zealand I was able to jump out and airplane, happily. That was because I convinced myself that I could and wanted to do it. But then I tried bungee jumping and I didn’t enjoy it. Thinking back, I realize that whole day I was saying, “I don’t want to do this but I should because it will be cool.” I didn’t want to jump off that bridge, so I didn’t enjoy it. From this, I realized that forcing myself to do things I don’t want to do isn’t the way to make myself feel happy.

Back to the rope swing story. I decided I didn’t want to jump off the rope swing. I was perfectly happy swimming in the beautiful swimming hole and laughing and enjoying the time spent with friends. I don’t regret it.

What I do regret is not doing the things I did want to do because I thought I couldn’t do it. That is where regret and sadness comes into life.

It's also important to remember that sometimes you may not want to do something because you are unfamiliar with it. Often times you'll never know if you really don't want to, unless you try. From all my trying to jump off of things, I have decided that's not what makes me happiest. I can be very happy on the ground. There are also many things I thought I did not want to do but realized afterwards that I did like it. Open your mind to try new things. By doing so you'll find out what you like and don't like. So when the time you can better decide what your "I can't" really means! :D


This whole jumping off things example is making me question whether or not I truly don't like it. Maybe next time I'll try jumping off the rope swing and I'll let you know if I liked it that time. Maybe it's just fear of being hurt that I don't want. Humm. See, I don't have life completely figured out. Can anybody ever have life completely figured out? If they could, I'd hope we'd know about it. At least I'm on the search for happiness that's the start, right?