Success Does Come in CANS. Believe that you CAN!

The Man Who Thinks He Can

If you think you are beaten, you are
If you think you dare not, you don't
If you'd like to win, but think you can't
it's almost certain you won't

If you think you'll lose, you've lost
For out of the world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will -
It's all a state of mind.

If you think you're outclassed, you are
You've got to think high to rise
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the one who thinks HE CAN.

Anonymous

The "I CAN" is what we have to muster when our confidence wanes, even if it comes across as over-confident or borders on cockiness. Success does come in cans because without the internal "I CAN," the corresponding action steps never happen. We generate between 15,000 and 66,000 thoughts per day, but 95% of them are the same thoughts that we had yesterday. Ninety-five percent of the time we are telling ourselves either "I CAN or "I CAN'T!" When patterns of "I CAN'T" get ingrained into our habitual life journey, they become difficult to change.

One of the great projects I have enjoyed is partnering with Mike Johnston and his wife Myrna to write 2 books on high performance culture. Mike asked me to help him accomplish his dream to pull together some of the collective team and performance wisdom from NHL coaches and players. I could easily have interviewed Mike, formerly an Associate coach with the LA Kings, because of his vast team development knowledge and experience. It was incumbent on me instead to interview 10 others.

One of the questions that we asked Scotty Bowman, the NHL's most successful coach, simply stated was, "What was the thread that ran through all of your success?" Scotty has won 10 Stanley Cups, 9 as a head coach, coaching 4 different teams to 13 Stanley Cup finals. He hesitated for just a minute and then answered confidently, "Ryan the thread that ran through all of my success was undoubtedly ownership's commitment to win."[i] This may sound simplistic, but if the top leaders do not believe that winning is possible and make it a priority, then few other people in the organization get committed to make it happen.

[i] [i] Johnston, Mike and Walter, Ryan, Simply the Best: Insights and Strategies from Great Hockey Coaches, Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd., 265

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