I Would If…

So today we’re going to pull out all of our “I can’t” statements from yesterday and rewrite them by substituting “I would… if …” Then we’re going to go several steps further by continuing with our statements until we loop back to the beginning or we know we’ve come to the end.

Here are a couple of examples:

I can’t lose weight because I love to eat too much.

• I would lose weight if I didn’t love to eat too much.
• I wouldn’t love to eat too much if I felt more satisfied with myself.
• I would feel more satisfied with myself if I had more physical affection coming my way.
• I would have more physical affection in my life if I had a love relationship.
• I would have a love relationship if I wasn’t embarrassed by how I look.
• I wouldn’t be so embarrassed by how I look if I could lose weight.

Hmmm… it’s a catch 22…  that was interesting and unexpected. I’m not quite sure what to do with it at this point, so I’m just going to leave it and go on to the next statement:

I can’t fix my plumbing because I don’t know how.

• I would fix my plumbing if I knew how.
• I would know how to fix my plumbing if I was a plumber.
• If I was a plumber I would fix my plumbing, but I’m not a plumber… so now what?
• I could fix my plumbing if I hired a plumber…
• So why don’t I?
• Alternatively, I could fix my plumbing if I became a plumber!

Again, interesting…

Continue with your “I can’t” statements from yesterday until you’ve completed them all, or until the exercise becomes boring. As you work through them, you might begin to see a pattern or a recurring theme.

As always, it will be much more effective and illuminating if you actually put pen to paper and write it down. I had a number of insights when I was working on this post… and those insights did not come when I was imagining and planning this exercise. They came when I was actually writing it all down.