Every so often I come across a poem that encompasses thoughts flowing through me and this one, whilst nearly one hundred years old, encapsulates the importance of self-belief.

You may often seek to achieve things in your life only to have others see fit to hold you back, to dictate to you what is or is not possible… How do they know?

Quite often it is based on their own experience or lack of it; possibly their lack of ambition to do more and quite often from a place of fear; fear you’ll be disappointed, you’ll fail, you’ll get hurt or that they will lose you as you grow and develop.

I believe in encouraging people to strive for their dreams, to be more of their full self, to discover their true potential and this poem reminds me of what is possible when we decide to get on and just do it…

It Couldn’t Be Done…

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,

But, he with a chuckle replied

That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one

Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin

On his face. If he worried he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;

At least no one has done it”;

But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,

And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,

Without any doubting or quiddit,

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,

There are thousands to prophesy failure;

There are thousands to point out to you one by one,

The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle it in with a bit of a grin,

Just take off your coat and go to it;

Just start to sing as you tackle the thing

That “couldn’t be done,” and you’ll do it.

Edgar Guest (1919)

Live Blissfully!

YvonneB