I remember when I was growing up, my parents used to become vey annoyed with me when I stated that I could not do my homework or could not do other things I had been asked to do.

They would respond with the advice that I could do anything in life as long as I believed in myself and as long as I was willing to work very hard. My dad would state that the word can’t does not exist in his vocab and that he always thinks in a “I can do” manner.

He ensured that I learnt this most important of lessons by keeping on nagging it to become a part of my natural character. It has helped me to achieve many things and to also overcome some of the issues I had in my life.

School and employment

I was not the brightest student at school and as previously mentioned would often say that I could not complete the work through my lack of belief in my own ability. Through hard work and determination though, I left school with an impressive set of examination results. I continued this success into my work life and became a successful upvc front door salesman as well as offering poster printing. 

Stuttering

From the age of four I had suffered with the speech impediment known as stammering or stuttering. By my early twenties I had had enough of this struggle and went about trying to overcome the stutter. My parents were amazing and were always there in a supportive way to ensure that I kept up the practice.

I did, after a huge amount of work and dedication, manage to overcome this most annoying of speech impediments, this enabled me to have the freedom and confidence to say any word that I wanted to – this was a huge relief as you can no doubt imagine. Life is now a lot easier!