How to Harness the Power of “Yet”

If we don't know how to do something, that's the BEGINNING, not the end of the game. We just don't know — YET.

The word “yet” is one of life's most beautiful contrasts. It expresses humility by acknowledging that there is something we value, but have not attained.

Simultaneously, it expresses confidence. It is the proclamation that although we have not attained it – it will in fact be ours.

It's the basis of our belief that something not currently achieved, is achievable. Claiming our “yet” propels our faith, motivation and confidence.

There are so many things that each of us now do on a regular basis — so many goals we've accomplished that were at some point, things we were absolutely clueless about! But for some reason, once we learned the skills or accomplished the goals, we too often disregard the magic of the learning process that led to the achievement in the first place.

Recognizing that we are infinitely able to learn anything we're passionate about is far more important than the attainment of any individual goal.

We've all done it at some point haven't we? – We see someone accomplishing or achieving something we ‘WISH' we could do or have, then, for no apparent reason, we make up some silly story about how we're somehow prohibited from having or doing something similar.

Of course, this is madness considering the countless things we've already learned. We really need to squash the thought of “Wow, I wish I could do that” and change it to “I'm going to learn how to do that.”

You and I already have everything we need to be capable of learning to do something we've never done before. We've already gone through the process of learning countless times. We really need to give ourselves more credit for our amazing ability to find answers and figure things out.

More importantly, we must develop the habit of being conscious about the process of learning. Most of the time, our learning is intuitive. We don't realize we're “learning”, we're just unconsciously figuring things out along the way. It just feels like life as usual.

When there's a goal that we consciously decide we want, we may initially “feel” like we're not very good at figuring things out because we haven't been intentionally paying attention to the countless things we've already been learning and accomplishing. In any given day we accomplish dozens of things we don't even remember learning how to do. We wake up and are 100% successful at making coffee, breakfast, brushing our teeth, getting the kids ready…on and on the list goes. We go to work and do our job, learn new responsibilities, new technologies, new procedures, new practices.

We do these things because they are part of our core values or things we've told ourselves are necessities. Nutrition, family, hygiene, employment, money, etc. Somewhere along the way we figured out how to do these things. But there was a time when we had no clue how to be a parent, or brush our teeth, or cook, or do our jobs. We learned.

So what's my point? — LEARNING IS LEARNING. PERIOD.

This is especially important to remember when it comes to our BIGGEST dreams, goals, passions and ambitions. Running a marathon, becoming a millionaire, or learning a new language or two aren't “commonly” pursued goals by much of society – but are we only able to learn things if they're “common goals”? Of course not. That's just silly.

No matter the topic, if there's something we truly value, something our heart is passionate about, and we don't know how to attain or accomplish it YET — we can. Period. No exceptions. Yes, we CAN.

If we don't have the information or skill YET, it means we're at one of the most exciting places of our lives. We're about to learn something new.

The common or uncommon nature of our goal does not determine our ability to accomplish it. Our willingness to embrace a cycle of learning, strategizing and taking relentless action does.

Look, we've already learned how to drive a car, check our email, pass a calculus test (WHY did we need that?), brush our teeth, work our smart phone, raise a family, read and talk – trust me, we can learn how to do anything.

If there's something you want that you don't know how to achieve, just remember to put one of life's most important words at the end of your sentence and say — “I don't now how…..YET.”