“Can’t-Be-Done’s”

by Emmet Fox

Here is a wonderful saying: “He didn’t know that it couldn’t be done, so he did it.” Meditate upon this, and you will find it very inspiring It is amazing to think how many interesting and worthwhile things most of us could do, if we had not put mental handcuffs on ourselves. What happens to many people is this: “When they are young they are full of ambition and confidence, and they attempt to do a number of interesting things. Being young, they lack experience, or the necessary means to accomplish their desires, and, after a number of failures, they become permanently discouraged and decide that after all they cannot do anything worth-while. Also they unwisely discuss their plans with other people, who thoughtlessly discourage or even snub them. Thus it is that the lives of most grown-up people are full of “can’t-be-done’s”.

They say “I can’t do this,” and “I can’t do that,” and “I am never able to do such a thing,” and “of course something else is impossible for me.”
Often they have a spurious reason – “my health,” “my constitution,” “my early training,” (or lack of it). “My age” is a favorite excuse for laziness.
“My family” is a pretty good excuse too, and, of course, there are always the climate, the unfavorable locality, and the depression.

A great industrialist has a rule in his works that when his research department fails to solve a problem, no records of these experiments are
kept. He says that these failures would be accepted as final and would prevent new men from ultimately solving those problems. He is
right, of course, in thus repudiating “can’t-be-done’s”.

Have a mental stock-taking and ruthlessly throw out all the “can’t-be-done’s” you find in yourself. Break those handcuffs with the power
of Truth. Just as you are today, you can do some wonderful things for yourself and those you love if you will get rid of the “can’t-be-done’s”.

“Can’t-Be-Done’s”

by Emmet Fox

Here is a wonderful saying: “He didn’t know that it couldn’t be done, so he did it.” Meditate upon this, and you will find it very inspiring It is amazing to think how many interesting and worthwhile things most of us could do, if we had not put mental handcuffs on ourselves. What happens to many people is this: “When they are young they are full of ambition and confidence, and they attempt to do a number of interesting things. Being young, they lack experience, or the necessary means to accomplish their desires, and, after a number of failures, they become permanently discouraged and decide that after all they cannot do anything worth-while. Also they unwisely discuss their plans with other people, who thoughtlessly discourage or even snub them. Thus it is that the lives of most grown-up people are full of “can’t-be-done’s”.

They say “I can’t do this,” and “I can’t do that,” and “I am never able to do such a thing,” and “of course something else is impossible for me.”
Often they have a spurious reason – “my health,” “my constitution,” “my early training,” (or lack of it). “My age” is a favorite excuse for laziness.
“My family” is a pretty good excuse too, and, of course, there are always the climate, the unfavorable locality, and the depression.

A great industrialist has a rule in his works that when his research department fails to solve a problem, no records of these experiments are
kept. He says that these failures would be accepted as final and would prevent new men from ultimately solving those problems. He is
right, of course, in thus repudiating “can’t-be-done’s”.

Have a mental stock-taking and ruthlessly throw out all the “can’t-be-done’s” you find in yourself. Break those handcuffs with the power
of Truth. Just as you are today, you can do some wonderful things for yourself and those you love if you will get rid of the “can’t-be-done’s”.

“Another basic error that misleads many people is this – they think of God and man in terms only of the moment, or, at most, of a few years. They want to see everything squared up and settled within a year or two and because this does not happen, they decide that there is no justice in the universe, no law and order, and they wonder why God does not step in and do something about it.

Now, you are going to live forever – somewhere. You are going to live, not for century or a thousand centuries but forever. And so you will see that a year or two, or twenty or thirty years, is a very short time in which to look for permanent results. The mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceedingly small. The gardener does not say that there is no law in nature because his crop does not come up a week after he sows it. We do not say that the railroad has broken down because the train is not in Chicago half an hour after it leaves New York, but we are often tempted to think that there is no law of justice and righteousness because we do not see the results of people’s good or evil deeds very soon after they happen.

Whatsoever a man soweth, says the Bible, that shall he also reap. This reaping takes time. If it seems to you that in your own life you have not received your desserts, the answer is that the end is not yet. God is never mocked, and sooner or later every prayer is answered. Every good thought, or word, or deed produces its fruit of happiness and spiritual advancement, and of course every negative thing for which we are also responsible will have to be met and overcome also. Nature always takes her time, and to understand her you must take the long view too.”

Next time we wonder why our affirmations haven’t worked or we haven’t received any “good” following our doing good, re-read this and realize the mills of God are grinding and great things will happen.

Terrie