Why you don’t want me to fix anything in your home
Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
Rudyard Kipling
When it comes to home repairs, I’m lost. You want me to replace a faucet or fix something in the toilet tank? I’d have a better chance of reaching the top of
Instruction sheets have the same affect on me as kryptonite had on Superman. If you recall the old Superman programs, the villain would shoot bullets at Superman – and the bullets bounced off his chest harmlessly. But there was one substance that Superman could not defend against – kryptonite. Whenever the bad guy held up a piece of kryptonite, Superman got wobbly and began to lose his power.
Well, when I see an instruction sheet, I get weak in the knees and lose my power. I just know it’s useless for me to even look at it. There’s no way I’m going to understand it.
So I put down the instructions and yell for D. to come in and show me what to do. For D. , it’s a piece of cake. How did it come to this? I don’t claim to be the smartest guy in the world, but I consider myself to be reasonably intelligent. Am I missing some gene for home repair skills that other people were given? No, that’s not it, either.
The answer is quite obvious. For the last 40 years, I have repeatedly said, “I’m no good at mechanical things” and “I can’t fix anything.” And, lo and behold, after 40 years of using negative words, I’ve developed a strong belief that I can’t do these things.
Do you see how I created this situation by not being careful about the words I used? And, the truth is I could eventually reverse this trend if I’d start using positive words about my ability to make repairs.
