What Makes the Impossible… Impossible?
What makes the impossible … impossible? Don’t make it hard … the answer is simple. Something is impossible because nobody has done it … yet. When someone does the “impossible” then it becomes possible and eventually, it will become routine.
It’s Roger Bannister running a sub-Four Minute Mile. When he accomplished that in 1954, no one had achieved that feat. He made the impossible … possible. Let’s jump ahead … during the 2021-2022 collegiate track season, 82 student-athletes in the NCAA, ran a sub-four-minute mile. (The men’s record for the mile run has 3:43.13 – Hicham El Guerrouj from Morocco).
The next “impossible” feat accomplished will be when the first woman runs a sub-four-minute mile. Right now, the fastest mile run by a woman is 4:12.33, run by Dutch runner Sifan Hassan, born in Ethiopia. This means that she would have to take three seconds off each lap … that’s a lot. But it’s only impossible because no had done it … yet.
But that’s the exciting thing. One day something is impossible. The next day someone has done it and then it becomes routine. It’s the cell phone. Remember how cool we thought the communicator on Star Trek was. Today, most everyone has a cell phone to communicate with.
I just had an angiogram procedure done on my heart. The incision looks like a nick on my wrist. But in that little hole they ran a wire and camera into my heart. Fifteen minutes … I was awake and watched the procedure. The good news is I have no blockage. The cool thing is that this technology is here … now. It isn’t IMPOSSIBLE. It’s routine.
So now I challenge you. What is seen as IMPOSSIBLE in your world?
Too many times we have stopped looking for the impossible because we get too busy doing … work. We’re satisfied doing just enough. Asking the same questions, finding the same answers.
I wore my publisher out during the pre-sales period of the marketing of my book by continually asking how my book was doing. They told me, “It’s doing great!” I wasn’t satisfied with that. I needed to know exactly how great was “great”. They said that successful book sales by a first-time author were between 200-300 … total sales. My presales went over 1,000 and I was excited. But I needed to know what that meant. Eventually, when everything was tabulated, I ended up breaking the record of presales by the book distributor my publisher used.
I didn’t just want to write a book I wanted to do the impossible. Write a book that was well received and, more importantly, that would change people’s lives. Helping people who were stuck in the world of the “impossible”. Where things didn’t seem possible anymore. The place where we get when we see no progress. We actually start to lose ground to people around us. I wanted to MOVE people out of their rut and inspire them to chase their dreams. Some people said that it was “impossible”.
My answer: “We’ll see about that …” as my mother would tell all those who doubted her number three son.
