I can’t do this vs. I messed up a few times
Eager to do something new, we give it a try. And very often we fail. But it’s ok. We try the second time. Maybe even the third. But if after all those attempts we don’t have the results we wanted, we assume that it’s not for us, that we can’t do it.
Sure, we failed. If you fail at something a few times it speaks something, not everything, but something. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do it. It may mean that you are messy, undisciplined or unprepared. But that doesn’t mean you can’t.
So you’ve burned a cake a couple of times, but that doesn’t mean you can’t cook. It means you didn’t pay attention or weren’t following the instructions.
Failing to learn a new language doesn’t mean you can’t learn it. Maybe your approach was lousy and you lacked some discipline.
Too often “I can’t do it” means “I don’t like it”, “I am scared to try one more time”, “I don’t want to risk” or “I don’t want to put all the effort required”.
But that is different than I can’t. At least be honest with yourself.
