An “Ableist” Meme? Really?

Someone said that the meme: “the only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it” was “ableist.”

Really? Allow me to ask you a question, then. Let’s say you KNOW you don’t have a necessary component to reach a goal: for instance, say I wanted to give birth to a little Zulu baby.

Ummm…I can think of at least three reasons why that is not a goal I would entertain if I was a sane human being. Gender, age, and ethnicity all collaborate to make that absurd.

I CANNOT DO IT. It is not at all “ableism” for someone to point out that I have a bullshit story going on about the very possibility of doing it, such that I have wandered down a very confusing and disempowering road if that is my “goal.”

What IS a goal? “A dream with a deadline” isn’t a bad definition. But let’s get more specific:

The S.M.A.R.T. goalsetting system is pretty darned useful. A goal needs to be

Specific.

Meaningful (to you)

As-if now (phrased in the present tense)

Realistic (someone else in your situation needs to have accomplished it)

Time-bound (A deadline. A time-frame you are willing to commit to.)

Now then. Was my goal “Realistic”? Hell no. Then what bullshit story did I tell myself to convince me it was? What the living hell was going on, that I would waste my time…