Angela Capinera

The sticker was born out of frustration. Frustration of personally being told “no”.  Frustration of clients being told by other “no” and that they are incapable of accomplishing what they need to accomplish. Frustration of being stuck somewhere in the middle with some project or class or course. Frustration of being ghosted, frustration of waiting for the email/text/ phone call. Frustration born of the “Out of Office” constant response. Where are you and what are you being paid for?

Simple frustration. Or is it so simple?

The sticker came out of the creativity brought on frustration. I sat there doodling, thinking of all of the historical figures I’ve deep dived with my clients while trying to help them with their papers and projects.  99.9% of these historical figures did not give up on what they wanted, or some of them fulfilled Shakespeare’s words from Twelfth Night: some of them have greatness thrust upon them by time and circumstance. We must sit together and talk about these people and my clients feel that they will be forever beneath these people, and sometimes their own family,  because they have always been told they are not successful in whatever circumstance. What do I always tell them when the frustration and anger at the comparisons have peeked?

You can.

You will.

And someday, someday, you will have the opportunity to say: “I did”.

The “did” part may take a while in coming, and that is always the most frustrating part. “Did” may not be for days, weeks, months, or years. “Did” cannot be measured now and will only be able to be measured in the future. “Did”, like Rome being built and becoming an empire, does not happen in one day.  The “did” must first be established and then the steps to finishing that “did”.

I can. I will. I DID.

The hardest part about the conversation is that you often need other people for your “did”. You can’t do your “did” alone. I had this conversation with a client once. He was showing an interest in coding. He had no idea about the history of computers. We watched a video about the computer history museum in California.  We watched videos on people who have been important in the history of computers. We had the conversation that one person cannot take everything needed for computer, hardware, and software and create it all within one lifetime, considering that adding machines could be considered the earliest computers. It’s the same with life in general. I can’t grow all of my food, drill all of my gas, make all of my clothes, etc. I don’t have the time, energy, resources, and creativity to do all of this.

I can. I have the abilities to begin, do, accomplish, and end something.

I will. The future is always the next second, the next minute, the next hour, the next day, the next week, the next month, the next year, the next decade, the next century.

I DID.