It works for the crow, why not you?
CAW is a simple philosophy I discovered in my 30’s while in the muck of despair and depression. I was living in a small town where I had gone to start a career as a newspaper reporter and rebuild myself as a person.
It took years to find my bedrock — the kind that builders of skyscrapers drill down to as an anchor for their lofty ambition. If I was to achieve mine I needed tools for my rebuild. I found three.
I call them CAW: Can, Am, Will.
CAW works by taking advantage of your mind’s willingness to believe what you tell it. So why not tell it good stuff?
CAW is exquisitely simple. Anybody can do it, but you have to practice to do it well. It is by the happiest of coincidences that CAW also is the cry of an audacious bird that Peter Pan imitated when he flapped his arms and declared, “I can fly!”
Can is the magical word that gives you permission to fly. Can is the root of the word can’t. Even the most negative person has to say can before they say can’t. It takes more effort to say can’t. So, stop at can and feel the earth move.
Can is the essence of every positive thinking book, philosophy, and great religion. It is belief in yourself. As the Bible says, Believe and it shall be opened to you. But you don’t have to find religion to find yourself.
Can is what makes dreams come true, and it’s easy to use right out of the box. You are instantly good at it.
Here’s how to use Can: say it. I can. Say it again. I can. Repeat as necessary.
Of course, if all you do is talk a good story, you’ll never live it — your life that is. You have to do something with your cans. Set them in motion. Create momentum. Build your own wave to surf.
Unfortunately, you are faced with physics — and Newton’s first law: A body in motion tends to stay in motion. A body at rest tends to stay at rest. So how to create un-rest? How to overcome the friction that plagues all endeavors?
You start. No mystery there, but to get going takes a first step, the hardest step. And that’s where the clever Am comes in. It is both revelation and reminder.
Am tells you the worst is over. You already have started. Can got you there. It got you dreaming and believing — actions of themselves. You are a believer. Believing is an action. You are on your way. I am.
And then you stumble. Fall off your own moving wagon. Fail.
Well of course you do! Everybody does. Often. Even routinely.
The question is whether you are going to take these fails to heart. Failing isn’t failure unless you give in to Newton’s law and stop believing.
Go after the fix, which is pretty simple. Just get up, bad feelings and all, and shrug your shoulders. Shit happens — say it to yourself. Look at the calendar. There’s a tomorrow on it. And tomorrow, after a fresh night’s sleep, you Willstart anew.
Will — not willpower — is redemption. I stumbled today, but so what? Look at the calendar. You will be back at it tomorrow.
Get the drift? It’s about forgiving yourself and believing in a new day’s promise.
Just don’t take too many vacation days.
A last thought — try to love the crow, that most irreverent and rambunctious of birds. He doesn’t ask permission — nor should you — and he flies with a rough crowd called a murder. So take wing, join the flock of believers and go slay some life problems.