If They Can Do It, You Can Do It

Almost every goal you want to achieve: losing weight, earning more money, or eliminating debt, has been accomplished by many other people. In fact, the exact amount of weight you need to lose and the precise amount of income you want to earn has already been accomplished many times before. Are those people any better than you? No! They merely understood that if someone else did it, so could they.

Excerpt from Think GREAT: 5 Steps to a Greater Life

I remember my first night in boot camp like it was yesterday. I was afraid. It was late and I was lying motionless on the top rack of my bunk, but I was unable to sleep. I kept thinking, “What have I done?” Three weeks earlier, I had turned eighteen. I was hanging out with my friends back home and I had no worries. But right now, I was in Marine Corps boot camp and a tremendous amount of fear was occupying my mind. I was afraid of what tomorrow would bring. I was afraid of the unknown. I was afraid of failing.

That night, it was silent in the barracks. The moonlight shining in the windows was just enough to allow me to see the others sleeping in their bunks. As I looked at my fellow recruits, I thought, “If they can do it, so can I.” I dwelled further on that thought and felt an immediate relief from the fear and worry.

I gained back some optimism on my first night in boot camp as I put things into perspective. I did the math: each week, 300 new recruits graduate from Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego, California. That is about 15,000 per year! More recruits graduate from the Marines Corps’ other boot camp in Parris Island, South Carolina. I realized that from the time of my birth until I was eighteen years old, over half a million recruits, just like me, made it through boot camp and earned the title of U.S. Marine.

As boot camp progressed, new challenges came my way, but I continued to months later, I graduated with a platoon of forty-eight. Our drill instructors were right; not everyone made it!

Since that night, I have constantly tapped into the power of “If they can do it, so can I.” You can use this same concept to increase your mindset as you strive to accomplish your goals.

Think GREAT!
© 2010 Erik Therwanger