As a coach I would not accept one of my athletes saying "I can't". To me if you say you can't you've already convinced yourself that you can't, and guess what you are more than likely correct. You will have a hard enough time beating yourself out of believing it's impossible, let alone actually overcoming the obstacle that is set in front of you. Several athletes that wrestled or played volleyball for me (wrestlers don't play they WRESTLE!!) will remember having to write the words "I can't" on a piece of paper and then they were instructed to wad it up, tear it up, whatever they wanted to do, and then as we entered the practice area they would throw that word in the trash can and from that point forward they were not allowed to use it in their practice or match vocabulary. Did that mean that all of a sudden they would never lose a match or even more that they would overcome every obstacle that was placed in front of them? Probably not, but I'm not willing to concede the possibility that it might be possible. What that wadded up paper meant to me was that anything in life is possible as long as you believe, you work towards surmounting that mountain in your life, and that anything at anytime is possible! You just have to believe. Was there times when an athlete or team I coached went out to compete believing they would win only to end up losing the match or game? Absolutely, the difference in the kids with the possibility mindset though was when they walked off the mat or court they didn't say "see I told you I was going to get beat" no, when they came off the field disappointed and disheartened they would say, "You know if I had done this or that" or "I believe I would have got him if I had worked a little harder, I 'll be ready next time", or "We almost had them will we get to play them again?". That is the power of possibility.
Isn't that building false hope? Isn't that not dealing with reality? I mean is it okay to teach kids that they are going to succeed in everything they do? My dear friends, HOPE is one of the best traits we can embed in our children, and also one that we need a healthy dose of in our lives each and every day. In Ecclesiastes 9:11-12, Solomon sums it up best, "Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. For man does not know his time." I believe what Solomon is promoting here is that nobody knows who is going to win the race, but one thing is for sure, if you aren't in the race then you for sure aren't going to have a chance to win the race! Get in the race!!
One more thing before we close today's thought. Think about David, a little shepherd boy armed only with a slingshot and a hand full of stones going up against the giant Goliath, armed with the best weapons the Philistines had and dressed in full armor. Who's your money on? What would you have done in David's sandals? Think about this for a minute it really has real life implications for you and where you are on the "possibility" spectrum. Well David was the sure bet, regardless of what Las Vegas would have said on that day. David went out with faith which is grounded in hope and he placed that stone right in the center of Goliath's forehead and BOOM! Goliath hit the ground "deader than a doornail" as the old saying goes!
I'm convinced that David would have been squashed if he had any other type of mindset going on in his head. If David would have walked out onto the battlefield and in his mind he had been thinking, "well I think I can do this" or "Gosh I hope this works out the way I want it to" I don't think he would have had the same kind of snap in his wrist when he loosed the stone from it's leather pouch. There is so much energy and power that comes with the thought that it might just be possible. If you have the "all things are possible" mentality going on then great, you are working your hardest and more than likely good things are happening. But if that isn't you then I want to challenge you today. The "all things are possible" concept is birthed in Matthew 19:26 which says "With man this is impossible, but with God ALL things are possible". I mentioned faith and hope earlier, you have to get up each morning and have a heaping bowl of hope for breakfast, and you've got to drench that hope with an overflowing cup of faith till the bowl is filled to the tip of the rim. It isn't easy and no I don't know your circumstances, but when you think you've got it bad think about it this way. More than likely out of the 7 billion people inhabiting this earth, there are probably at least ten million people that have life conditions or situations that are worse than your own. Stop. Think about that number as a group of people that have worse circumstances than you do. 10,000,000 people. Out of that number a large percentage are kicking it to the curb and believing in the possibility of ALL things are possible. Be one of those people. It is your choice. The last time that I used the word "can't" in my practices each year was when I would remind my athletes that "can't never could and won't never will" then I would throw those defeated words out of my vocabulary and we would march forward to face the giants that stood in front of us individually and collectively as a team. You are not in this alone. You are not facing your giants by yourself. When you feel like you are on the battlefield and all you have is a stone and a slingshot, think how lucky you are to have that slingshot and that one stone. One is all it took for David to slay Goliath and one possibility is all it takes for you to overcome that giant that is staring you in the face! "Never quit, Never give up, and always do your best!"
Go get'em this week! You are the possibility in someone's life!
Coach Carter
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