Impossible is Just a Word

When most of us are little, we have an imagination that just won’t quit.

A long time ago, not withstanding any of today’s stereotypes or political correctness, the boys would play “Cowboys and Indians” or “cops and robbers”; the girls might play “dress-up” or “movie star”, or take on the guise of their favorite “Nurse Florence Nightingale”, fantasy characters, “Snow White”, or “Wonder Woman”!

Later, those dreams and fantasies morphed into a reality that didn’t materialize quite “like the books” or how our imagination expected.

Alas, we discovered we had to change our thinking or real life would just get in the way.

In more recent years, the fantasy in some ways has taken on a dream we all dream at some point of our lives, that of being somebody special, somebody big. Who hasn't fantasized about being the one who hits the game-winning homer? Who hasn't dreamed of being the homecoming queen? And how many times have we dreamed of being rich, or successful, or happy with our relationships?

Often, though we dream big dreams and have great aspirations, our dreams, unfortunately, remain just that – dreams. And our hopes easily get pushed aside to collect dust in our attic.

Such a sad turn of life’s events

Instead of experiencing exciting adventures in self-actualization, we become caught up in the humdrum of living from day-to-day, just barely existing.

But you know, life could be so much better, if we just learned to aim higher.

The most common problem to setting goals is the word “impossible”. Most people get hung up with a self-fulfilling prophesy; a thinking that I can't do this. It's too hard. It's too impossible. No one can do this.

It then becomes their reality!

However, if everyone thought like that, where would we be? It’s almost like we become George Bailey in “It’s A Wonderful Life” looking at his life; for us/the world there would be no inventions, no innovations, and no breakthroughs in human accomplishment.

On the other hand, some people suffer from dreaming totally outrageous dreams and not acting on them. The result? Broken dreams, and tattered aspirations!

It’s a sad, sad situation.

If you limit yourself with self-doubt, and self-limiting assumptions, you will never be able to break past what you deem impossible. If you reach too far into the sky without working towards your goal, you will find yourself clinging to something that can never happen.

Here’s an exercise to try

Take a piece of paper and write down some goals in your life. Under one header, list things ‘you know you can do’. Under another header, write the things ‘you might be able to do.’ And under one more, list the things that are ‘impossible for you to do.’

Now look at all the headers and figure out how to accomplish the goals every day that are under things ‘you know you can do’. As you accomplish them, check them off. As you slowly progress to each goal under that heading, move to tackling the goals under the next header--the one ‘you might be able to do’.

As the items you have written under “things I could do” are completed, you can move the goals that are under things that are ‘impossible for you to do’ to the list of things ‘you might be able to do.’

As you work through this process, you’ll realize that the goals you first thought were impossible become easier to accomplish.

And the impossible begin to seem possible after all

You see, the technique here is to not limit your imagination. It is to aim high, and start working towards that goal little by little. However, it also is unwise to set a goal that is truly not realistic.

On the other hand, if you told someone a hundred years ago there would eventually be a man on the moon, or if you had said you would one day send mail from here to the other side of the world in a few seconds, in all probability, you would quickly be on your way to the nearest mental facility.

As you know, though, with sheer desire and perseverance, these impossible dreams are now realities.

Although the dreams didn’t just become reality, it took hard work and discipline.

Much like attaining dreams in athletics, there can be no forward motion unless you take yourself out of your comfort zone. Remember the saying, “No pain; no gain”?

So dream on!

And above all, let’s not get caught up with our perceived limitations and what ifs. We must think big and work hard to attain our dreams. So we can see that as we step up the ladder of progress we will find discover the impossible has just become a little bit more possible.

So, whether you are a cops and robbers kind of guy or a Nancy Drew kind of gal, how will your dreams chart look now?