When the topic of meditation came up the other day I heard the same thing I’ve heard many times before. I’m sure you’ve heard and said similar thing for similar activities:

“Oh, I can’t meditate. My mind is too frantic. I wish I could.”

Maybe you’ve heard or said it in this form:

“Oh, I can’t go to the gym. I’m too out-of-shape. I wish I could.”

or:

“Oh, I wish I could organize my life. I’m just too busy. I wish I could”

or in the generic form:

“I wish I could do X, but I’m too what-X-fixes. I wish I could.”

Everyone who learned to do X, be it meditating, getting fit, keeping their life organized, or whatever, faced the same challenges and needed motivation to start too. They did it the same way this complainer would have to. The difference is they did it.

When they say that self-defeating line, people who know how to do it hear

“I would benefit most from doing it. I just decline to motivate myself to do it and lie to myself that I can’t.”

Hearing that fills you with compassion and pity. They confused a reason to do something with an excuse not to.

They’re blaming something — fate? — instead of taking responsibility and fooling themselves into thinking they’re helpless.

Their block is internal, but not where they think it is.

• ← One of the most important lessons I learned in business school didn’t come from a teacher and it applies everywhere in life
• People who succeeded despite adversity, part 2 →