Why Not You?

Earlier this month I was talking to a fifth grade girl who had recently won first place at her school’s Spelling Bee. She now has the chance to move forward onto the county-wide spelling bee, which takes place later this month.

“I’m nervous.” she told me. “I don’t know if I wanna go.”

“Don’t know if you wanna go? Why not try? Go for it girl! You know what happens if you win the county spelling bee?” I said.

”No, what? I get a ribbon?” she replied simply.

”Not just a ribbon. You get a chance. The winner of the county spelling bee goes on to the National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. The winner of that wins $40,000 and a bunch of other cool stuff. You might win, you might not. But you have to at least take the chance.” I implored.

”What?! $40,000? You’re joking! Oh my gosh! Okay, I’m studying! I’m doing it! Ugh….but I’m still nervous. And…I heard that no one from our school has ever won the county spelling bee.” she said, from excitement to doubt in less than ten seconds.

“So? No woman had ever successfully flown a plane across the Atlantic until Amelia Earhart did it. No one had ever made an iPhone until Steve Jobs did it. Everything has to have a first person to do it at some point. Why not you? You have to at least try.”

She left the conversation clutching her list of spelling bee words, telling me she was going to go home and study them, and that she wanted a chance at that big grand prize. She understands that she might not win. But she’s willing to try.

How often to we do this to ourselves? How often do we discredit ourselves before we’ve even begun? How often do we retreat from a dream, a goal, a burning desire, because we only see the possible failure instead of the possible success?

So the question I want you to ask yourself today is, “Why not me?”

Maybe you don’t think you can go to college because no one in your family has done that, or maybe you think that season has passed you and there’s just no way.

Maybe you want to start an Etsy shop but you’re stuck in self-criticism even though you know deep down that creating things is a passion of yours and something at which you are very talented.

Maybe you want to run a 5K but you don’t think you could even walk a mile, even though you’ve been feeling the tug to do one for years now.

Friend, there’s no rule that says you can’t. You won’t know though, until you try. Let your faith and your goals be bigger than your fear and gripping doubt. Let me spell it out for you—YOU. CAN. DO. IT.

Why not you?