Possible vs Impossible

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What’s Possible?

Take a look around you and you’ll see exactly what is possible. I’m currently staring at the blue, blinking light of my wifi router, proof of the realized possibility of technology through air. Food is available at my fingertips, contraptions to heat and cool air, the ability to write and form sentences to speak, houses, apartments, skyscrapers. All are possible because they all exist. The possibilities seem so endless. It makes me wonder why I’m even writing an article about the impossible. I’ll get to the reason for this soon enough. First, let’s bring ourselves into the equation. Yes, you and me.

What may seem possible to you as you look around and think about your life may seem impossible to others, or even to yourself five years ago. There are people all over the world who can’t imagine internet traveling through the air or a heating and air system, and yet these same things are so possible to me I can touch them. This begs the question: how do I decide what’s possible? And since it’s different for each one of us, we need to be even more specific: how do I determine what’s possible for me? This, ladies and gents, is arguably the most important question, since there is no single overarching answer to the question which we can all rely on. Now we’re getting somewhere.

So why write an article about the impossible if all we have to do is ask what is possible? Because to look at what’s possible in our lives is to look at both the past and the present. Asking our brain to think and consider the impossible is asking it to look to the future.

What’s Impossible?

What’s impossible for you? Really ask yourself that question. I promise your brain will start giving you answers. While you think about it I’ll continue talking to you. Let’s go back in time together. One hundred years ago the television was impossible. I mean, can you imagine who even thought of transporting images to a little box so you could watch it in your living room with your family? How did that impossible idea even pop into someone’s head? What about airplanes, refrigerators, internet, plumbing? All were impossible once and yet now they’re here, in our realm of possibility. I’m being a little dramatic here, so let’s get back to you and me. I thought it was impossible to graduate with my master’s degree. Things kept popping up and graduation kept getting pushed back, and at one point, I believed it was literally impossible for me to receive that diploma. Sure, thousands of other people have their master’s degree, but that didn’t mean it was possible for me. And yet I kept pushing forward because maybe, just maybe, I would be able to make my goal possible.

I’m sure you can see where this story is headed. My belief in the impossible held up. I graduated and got that diploma. What was impossible became possible.

Here’s another question for you: what have you done to make the impossible happen? Finally buy that dream car, graduate from college, marry your sweetheart, build your house, overcome a breakup, move out of your parent’s house? You’ve done the impossible. You overcame your own brain, any objections placed in front of you, and believed hard. You did it. Think about it.

What to do with the idea of the impossible

Ok, so we’ve figured out the possible is what has already been done and what we have already created in our life. And we’ve figured out the impossible is what we have yet to create, and is something that will take a heck of a lot of belief to make happen. Now what?

STEP 1:

Choose your next impossible venture. I’ve already chosen my impossible goal for the year. I thought about what I want to make happen which, right now, seems like it never will. And then I went all in.

STEP 2:

Believe hard. All it takes to make the impossible happen is to believe. Believe hard. I know you’re probably shaking your head at me right now, but just hear me out. If I had known from the beginning the exact path I’d need to take to get my master’s degree, I wouldn’t have needed to believe. I would have just taken that path. But I didn’t know. I had to figure it out along the way. There were many times when I wanted to give up because it seemed i m p o s s i b l e. Instead of giving up, I believed hard. I decided I would do whatever it takes to make it happen because I believed I would eventually figure it out. And because I believed, I kept moving forward. I jumped over money obstacles, swerved by deployments, paused at rest stops, took detours, and kept going. Without believing hard, I would have given up and proven to myself that it was in fact impossible. I’m challenging you to prove to yourself that you CAN do the impossible.

STEP 3:

Take action. If you believed you could do this impossible thing, what would you do next to make it happen? Do that thing, and then ask yourself that question again. I’ll go into more detail on this in a later article, but this will absolutely get you started. Choose your impossible goal, believe hard every single day, and keep taking action.