I Think You Can, I Think You Can, I Think You Can.

I'm in a group chat with my three best friends. It's full of memes, embarrassing stories, and venting sessions. But, when you need it to be, it's the best pep talk ever. 
My friend Kayla started a fitness motivation group where a group of Instagram friends hold each other accountable to their goals-fitness and otherwise. It's inspiring and convicting and has been so good for me. 
I just finished Girl, Wash Your Face and am truly overflowing with inspiration from it. It has kept me awake at night in the best way possible. It has pushed me and fueled me and made me write things down and dream out loud and believe in myself.
All of those things together have cumulated in me feeling like I can do anything. They've got me feeling so inspired and my cup is overflowing with belief in myself and my dreams. I've been waking up in the morning with my brain resembling The Little Engine That Could, saying over and over, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. 
Maybe your cup isn't feeling too full right now. Maybe you don't have an awesome group chat that talks you up when you need it. Maybe you're not riding the high of some "you can do it!" book. Maybe the thought of saying (and believing) "I think I can" seems false and overwhelming. 
That's okay. 
I think you can.  
Everyone deserves a support system. Everyone deserves cheerleaders in their life when things get hard and they get tired. Everyone deserves someone who will make you believe in yourself, no matter what. 
And if you can't find that anywhere in your life right now...not in a book or a podcast or a group or a friend or a therapist's office or within yourself...if that voice is missing from your life, let me just be a stand-in today, okay? 
I truly, truly think you can. 

That business you want to launch? I think you can. The amount of money you're trying to save to allow you to be a stay-at-home parent? I think you can. The book you're trying to write? I think you can. The benchmark you're trying to reach with your business this year? I think you can. That vacation home you want to buy so you can fulfill your dream of retiring by the beach? I think you can. 
I think you can do it because I think I can do it. I don't say that lightly, I don't gloss over it like a pretty and pink inspiring quote on Pinterest that I love in the moment and then never read again. I really, honestly, in the depths of my soul believe we can do it. I believe if we truly try, really give it our all, we can do it. And if we're not gonna try, what the heck are we doing here? 
I hope you have the best support system in the whole world. I hope you're surrounded by encouragers who are constantly reminding you that you can do these things. But I also know there's a good chance that that's not the case. 
So hey, let me be a loud, honest voice in your ear today: You can do it. 

You Can Do It: Over and Over and Over.

You can do it. I write these words and see these words all the time. I see them in post after post, articles on Buzzfeed, inspiring pinterest quotes. I say these words to friends, to family, to coworkers. I smile when they are said to me.

It can sometimes seem redundant, saying and seeing and writing these words again and again so that they seem to lose their meaning. But still, we have to keep saying them. We have to keep encouraging, keep believing, and keep fighting the loneliness of being the only one who believes in your dreams.

Because often, even if someone can't do it, hearing that they can is the only thing they need in the entire universe for that to change.

Don't let those words become so repetitive that they begin to sound cliché. Don't let the abundance of pretty images online that share the same words take away from the meaning of someone saying those words to you. Don't let the fifty-second encouraging article you've read this week take away from the importance of saying those words to other people.

When someone says these words to you, you are no longer alone. Someone else believes in you and your journey. And when you say them to someone else, you are no longer alone. Because you believe in them and their journey. So keep saying, keep writing, keep believing.

You can do it. You can do it. You can do it.