Subtle shifts have always intrigued me. Sometimes a single letter makes a world of difference. From a can’t to a can. The difference between impossible and possible is two small letters at the start and they happen to be I’m.
An interesting difference because possible means taking ownership and impossible releases you of any need to try. Our speech and thoughts shape our lives. Results follow.
So, if you say something is impossible it probably will be; in fact you may as well drop the “probably”! Seeing possibilities encourages you to empower yourself. The real power comes when you don’t see failure as bad.
Failure drives success. Seeing only opportunities transforms your inner and outer environment. Like driving a car – you turn into a “T” junction, realise there is no through access, turnaround and find another route. Imagine if you sat there, switched the engine off and said “That’s it; I’ve failed”
Robin Sharma sums it up beautifully:
“There are no mistakes, only lessons”
Here’s the key: you will only make mistakes, leading to lessons which lead to success, if you are willing to try in the first place. If you think something is impossible you are not even taking the first step onto the ladder. Without the first step you’ve no chance of climbing.
Momentum is what’s needed; rolling the ball and occasionally kicking it so high you add another planet to the universe.
Impossible is a label that stops you seeking solutions. After impossible the easy bit is finding proof of impossibility. Anyone can do that. To focus on possible you need to be willing to fail. If you can laugh at your failure, you’ve a greater chance of success. To focus on possible you need ideas and lots of them! Grab my Idea Creation E-Book to help you uncover infinite ideas.
You can achieve almost anything you want to – if you want to. When you move away from seeing words like “impossible” and believing them you’ve a far greater chance of success. The trouble is they are stop words, dead end words like the “T” junction scenario: say impossible and that’s it.
The great thing about words is they are powerful. The problem with words is they are powerful. When you see a word or have a thought it’s not cast in stone; not final. If you don’t like a word change it. If you don’t like a thought – change it. If you fail – try again.
If people laugh at you because you make mistakes – good. It shows you have tried. Ignore them, ignore your failures; strive for constantly learning, always trying and you’ll amaze yourself with what you can achieve. People laughed at mobile phones when they first came out because they were large and cumbersome – now you are more likely to be laughed at for not having one!
Every failure arms you with real change; real lessons and real possibilities. Failing offers lessons through direct experience you may never have learnt any other way.
Don’t let a thought stop you trying. You have thousands of thoughts every day so you can have thousands of ideas every day and if you have to fail thousands of times do so. How do you know if you’ll fail or not? Whatever you wish to do, try it, and if you fail – try again. In many cases you can do it – you only think you can’t.
Check the words you use and the thoughts you think. Watch out for words like impossible and can’t and change them – you’ll be amazed how many other words you notice that can trick you into thinking you can’t make progress or find solutions.
As Henry Ford said:
“Whether you think you will succeed or not, you are right”
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