Break the Unwritten Rule of Possibility by recognizing that oftentimes, whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right!
Whether we like to admit it or not, we often prefer to live in a world that is black and white -- a world of yes and no, on and off, possible and impossible. How we define any given task then serves as a self-fulfilling prophecy that determines what we are willing to try and how much effort we are willing to put into it. Is it possible or impossible?
What was impossible yesterday might very well be reality today. What we "knew" was unrealistic or was labeled “science fiction” before has now become the commonplace today.
Just for fun, here are some fantastic, outlandish, totally “impossible” ideas that were featured in stories and the realities that have come to be:
Aqua Lungs: Jules Verne - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 1870
Submarines: Jules Verne - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 1869
Waterbeds: Robert Heinlein - Stranger in A Strange Land 1961
Cell Phone and Blue Tooth - Star Trek (flip phone communicators)
Test tube babies and genetic engineering: Aldus Huxley - Brave New World 1932
IPad: Arthur C Clarke - 2001: A Space Odyssey the New Pad 1968
The Atomic Bomb HG Wells - The World Set Free 1914
The Cubicle: E.M. Forster - The Machine Stops 1909
Ear Bud Headphones Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451 1950
Being able to breathe hundreds of feet below the surface of the sea? Sleeping on a bed of water? Fertilizing human eggs in a test tube? Portable, personal speakers? When these stories were originally written, the general consensus was that these inventions were fabrications of the imagination. And yet, they are now all commonplace in our world.
So what about you? Are there goals you’ve considered that you’ve already decided are impossible? Is there something that you’ve always wanted to do, but before you even tried, you’ve mentally decided that failure is inevitable? Are there dreams in your heart that won’t see the light of day because you’ve already discounted them? Break the Unwritten Rule of Possibility by recognizing that oftentimes, whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right! Challenge the assumptions that suffocate your ideas, blocking you from that fuller, richer, more satisfying life. Dare to dream, plan, and begin the process of making the impossible a reality.
“The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes a little longer.”
Motto of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War II