Commit to the Impossible
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
– Alan Kay
A few short weeks ago, I encouraged you to think BIG. I believe in that. It’s a healthy thing to do. It encourages growth and opens up the door to opportunity. I hope at least some of you have done that. I hope some of you have realized that the most impossible dreams are ultimately achievable given an open mindset, and have the motivation, attitude, persistence and resilience to see them through.
Now that we’ve taken that giant step into the new year, how’s it going? We all begin the new year with a bang, energized and motivated to implement our new goals and put processes in place to see them through. But you know, motivation is a lot like resolutions. We start with great expectations but within a few weeks, or sometimes even a few days, we lose steam. We return to work and it’s business as usual. We realize that nothing’s really changed. We slide back into the same daily routines and patterns that inevitably keep us repeating the past.
Why?
- Maybe we feel that the goals we’ve set for ourselves this year are too big – that we’ve bitten off more than we can chew. That’s easily remedied by breaking up our big goals into achievable small tasks, and rewarding ourselves and our teams as each one is accomplished. It keeps us moving forward and at the same time appeases the need of our lizard brains for instant gratification. The important thing is making progress.
- Maybe it’s not the size of our goal, but how many goals we’ve set out to accomplish that’s bogging us down. Keep it simple. Focus on those that play into inherent strengths. Then grow them – and exceed all expectations. It’s not the number of goals we set but how well we do them that matters.
- Maybe we’ve run into a stumbling block – already. Step back. Look past the problem. Refocus and look for solutions. Oftentimes you’ll find them, right under your nose.
So do something different. Challenge the status quo. Make the impossible possible. Realize that we determine whether we succeed or fail. We’re products of our thoughts. If we think our goals are unattainable, they will be. If we think they’re unrealistic, they’ll be that too. If we think they’re impossible to achieve, they will be. If we believe we can, we will. Chins up. Stay positive.
There’s a Chinese proverb that says: “The person who says something is impossible should not interrupt the person who is doing it.”
Here are 12 more quotes to inspire you to commit to the impossible:
- “What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are.” – Anthony Robbins
- “The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible.” – Anonymous
- “The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.” – Robert Schuller
- “Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.” – Charles F. Kettering
- “Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.” – Robert A. Heinlein
- “Impossible only means that you haven’t found the solution yet.” – Anonymous
- “Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.” – Doug Larson
- “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’! “ – Audrey Hepburn
- “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” – Charles R. Swindoll
- “Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.” – Louis D. Brandeis
- “There is nothing impossible to him who will try.” – Alexander the Great
- “No one gets very far unless he accomplishes the impossible at least once a day.”- Elbert Hubbard
Remember, the impossible becomes the possible, because of you!