You remember Jiminy Cricket, right?  He was Pinocchio's wise conscience who sat on Pinocchio's shoulder.  

 

Most of us have the negative version of a Jiminy Cricket sitting on our shoulder, telling us that we can't do it, that it's too hard, that we'll fail or that we'll look ridiculous.  This negative self-talk is not true but drowning out this nattering nabob of negativity isn't easy. 

 

The best stuff I've done, the stuff I'm proudest of, the stuff that has provided the most benefit to me and to others have been those things about which I ignored the daunting list of things that could possibly go wrong as well as the negative Jiminy Cricket on my shoulder.  

 

Like at age 19 moving across the country from Iowa to Arizona, a state I had never even been to and knew nothing about, with $90 in my pocket, no job and no idea about who would possibly hire just-graduated-from-high-school no skills me.

 

Like hitchhiking back to Iowa when no one would cash my last paycheck from the small Iowa factory where I had been working and continuing this journey even though my first ride offered me $20 for, er, favors and when I said no let me out in the desert in middle of nowhere.

 

Like restarting college after dropping out for two years even though I had no idea if I could compete with kids fresh out of high school and even though I had no money and therefore no idea how I was going to pay for it. 

 

Like calling together a group of women to start a non-profit to provide after-school and summer substance abuse prevention programing for kids in Ouray County even though I had no idea how to start a non-profit program and had never run a non-profit.

 

Like going to law school after discovering too late that there are no jobs for folks with a B.S. in Political Science even though my only information on lawyers was from tv and even though I had never even met a lawyer in real life nor seen a trial. 

 

Like starting a career as an artist even though I didn't know if I was good enough, even though I had no formal art training and even though I had no real idea how to succeed as an artist.

 

My secret weapon, my kryptonite against "I can't" is ... wait for it ... self- help books.

 

My current self-help favorite is "Everything is Figureoutable" by Marie Forleo.  She's a come from behind, just get it done, you can do it kinda author.  Best of all, she's right; everything IS figureoutable.  You just have to work at it, to be open to the possibilities, to seize the day when it's present, to not be afraid to fail, to change direction when necessary and, most of all, to persist.

 

So go for it.  Seize the day.  After all, everything is figureoutable.