more can

Whether it was a hard math problem, a basketball move I was struggling with, or a goal I thought was too lofty for me to achieve, my mom always said the same words to me.

”Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

These words have been a daily reminder to me that if I have a positive mindset about what I am doing, anything is doable. If I believe I can, I can do whatever I set my mind to.

This past week in Maryland, I had the honor of meeting a young woman who has a whole lot of can.

While Maryland’s agriculture may look a lot different from what I grew up around in Montana, it’s amazing to see that the heart of agriculture is universal. Ellie, an FFA member in Howard County, shared a little of her story with me while I was there to visit their chapter. She told me a little about her background, and how she had helped start their FFA chapter two years ago. I could tell that there was more to the story, however.

After asking some more questions, I found out that Ellie grew up around agriculture. She knew she wanted to pursue a career in the industry, but none of the schools in her county had agriculture programs. When she was in middle school, a bill was proposed that would require every county school system to have at least one agriculture program. Ellie, at such a young age, decided to go testify in support of the bill.

The bill was passed with some amendments, but unfortunately, her county did not act on it.

Ellie continued to work hard on getting an agriculture program started with her county’s school superintendent. Eventually, an advisory board was started, and a program opened up in her county’s Career and Tech Center.

Ellie believe she could, so she did.

Since playing that crucial role in starting the Howard County FFA chapter, Ellie has started doing an internship with the Maryland Farm Bureau, attended National FFA Convention, and has dedicated so much time to agriculture advocacy. Beyond her, though, the Howard County FFA Chapter has joined her in the "can” attitude. The chapter is involved in the community, and works hard for the success of the program. The chapter even placed at the National FFA Convention in the Livestock Judging Career Development Event.

Dozens of students have the opportunity to experience agriculture education and FFA because of Ellie’s choice to believe “can” over “can’t”.

We all have the same choice each day.

We can let the fear of failure stop us from trying. We also have the opportunity to believe that we can.

At the end of each day, we should be filled with encouragement for all that we can do. There’s a whole lot more in this world that we can do than we can’t do.

There’s no use focusing on the can’t. When we think we can’t, we are telling ourselves that fear of failure is the ultimate decider. When we let that fear of failure control what we do, it never leads us to make meaningful impact. It becomes a loss of ambition, and a negative spiral in our mindset. Why not choose to view our lives from the positive perspective?

A can mindset will constantly remind you that even when failure does occur, it is only a minor setback. Ellie did not stop when her county did not follow up on the passing of the bill she testified for. Instead, she decided to do more. She set her mind to a goal, and she worked hard to achieve it. Her choice to have more can led to an amazing outcome for her entire county.

Ellie is a reminder to us all to have more can.

We all have the ability to make an impact in big and small ways. We just have to choose that we can. So, let’s have more can.

There’s more can.

There’s more to it all.