Class 9 reading activity

You have to give up ‘I can’t’

If you want to be successful, you need to give up the phrase, ‘I can’t’ and all of its cousins such as ‘I wish I could’. The words ‘I can’t’ send a powerful negative message to your subconscious mind. They disable you. The moment you utter those two words you become weaker than you actually are.

In my seminars, I use a technique called kinesiology to test people’s muscle strength as they say different phrases. I ask them to stretch their left arm out to their side and push down on it with my left hand to see what their normal strength is. Then I ask them to say something they think they can’t such as ‘I can’t play the violin’. I ask them to say it aloud and push down on their arm again. It is always weaker. Then I ask them to say ‘I can do it’ and their arm is stronger. Your brain is designed to solve any problem and achieve any goal that you give it. They words you think and say actually affect your body. We see that in toddlers. When you were a young child, there was no stopping you. You thought you could do anything. You thought you could climb anything. No barrier was too big for you to overcome. But little by little you lose your sense of invincibility to the emotional and physical abuse you receive from your family, friends and acquaintances until you no longer believe that you can. So, remove ‘I can’t’ from your lexicon today itself.

Read the questions given below and write the option you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheet.

(a) The words ‘I can’t; make you

(i) confident and happy

(ii) unhappy and pessimistic

(iii) powerless and inadequate

(iv) energetic and powerful

(b) The narrator uses kinesiology in his seminars ……………………..

(i) to test people’s physical strength

(ii) to build his own confidence

(iii) to make people confident themselves

(iv) to make them realize that they should not have a negative approach

(c) The narrator feels that words spoken by one are important because ………………….

(i) they cannot hurt anyone

(ii) they create many hurdles

(iii) he has certain revelations

(iv) because they affect your body

(d) A toddler cannot be restricted in his movements as ………………………

(i) he possesses a sense of invincibility

(ii) no barrier is too big for him to overcome

(iii) he cannot understand criticism

(e) The word ‘invincibility’ means

(i) courage and bravery

(ii) quality of being unconquerable

(iii) quarrelsomeness

(iv) irritability

Answers

a) powerless and inadequate

b) to make them realize that they should not have a negative approach

c) they affect your body

d) he possesses a sense of invincibility

e) quality of being unconquerable