I Can Do This

This morning, after climbing up and down a full flight of stairs for the first time, I took my second outdoor walk as prescribed by my physical therapist. With my hips, glutes, and quads tighter and sorer than yesterday, I felt like the Tin Man in need of oil. As I walked, I became my own motivational speaker.

Without intending to, I’ve been talking myself through each difficult movement for days, urging my body to do what it needs to do. My words override my body’s urge to scream, “I can’t. It hurts too much.”

On my walk, with each difficult step, I heard myself say, “I can do this. I can do this.”

My newly coined mantra transported me to my childhood room, where I lay sick in my twin bed reading what I recognized this morning was my first motivational book: The Little Engine That Could.

What I recall is that as the engine struggled up the hill it kept saying, “I think I can. I think I can.” And so it did.

This morning, many decades later, as I walked the slope to the end of the block and back, this childhood memory propelled each step: “I can do this.” And so I did.

I’m grateful the lesson lived in me this morning when I needed it.

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