Taking the “Im” Off “Impossible”
How many times has someone said to you, “That’s not possible,” or “You can’t do that,” or “It will never happen”?
Well, what if you ignored the naysayers and just did what you wanted to do anyhow?
This past week I had numerous personal experiences that reminded me, once and for all, that there’s no such thing as impossible… and we can accomplish a lot more than we think.
To set the stage, Barry and I were interviewed last week by Stacy Hopkins for her Inside Success Series of teleseminars. She asked us each what our favorite or most powerful moments were from the interviews we did for Masters of the Secret, and I told about Jack Canfield’s E+R=O formula: Event + Reaction = Outcome.
So you can’t control the event (whatever it is that happened in your life), but you can control your reaction to it… and that reaction to the event determines the outcome.
= = = = = = =
Barry talked about some of the lessons he learned from doing the interviews, but after the call we continued the conversation; and he brought up one of his favorite stories from Joe Vitale, which was first related to his subscribers in an email with the subject line, “Impossible? I’m not sure ANYTHING is impossible.”
And I have to agree.
The story goes that Joe was trying to get rid of scorpions in his house, and he decided to complete this task by using an ultrasonic device designed to repel bugs. Well, you can imagine the reactions he got to that event. Even the manufacturer said, “No way, no way, will our device ever, ever work on scorpions.”
But Joe’s reaction was different.
He decided to go ahead and do what his instincts told him, and discovered that the scorpions were repelled by the device just as he’d hoped; or rather, just as he’d known.
Hey, it’s not easy to repel a scorpion; as a born-and-bred Scorpio, I should know! š
But Joe believed in the possible, and went ahead with it.
Now here’s where it gets interesting; within 48 hours after having that conversation, Barry and I experienced three instances of overcoming the “impossible” ourselves.
First, we have wanted to walk our cat, Mercury, in the park for some time (our second cat, Jupiter, is a little too young still, but she’ll get her day for breaking the rules too).
The first few times Mercury had a leash slapped on her, she reacted predictably to the event: rolling over on her back and trying to bat and chew the leash off. It didn’t look promising, and predictably, everyone we told said, “You can’t do that. You can’t walk a cat.”
Well, we reacted to that in defiance, and went ahead and took Mercury to the park anyhow. Her little tiger-striped leash clipped to her rainbow collar, she rode in my arms until we reached a flat spot by the river, then let her walk around.
Yup… you guessed it. We walked our cat on the leash.
Okay, it was a little game of tug-of-war to begin with, but by the end she was trotting along like a little puppy as I walked ahead, and Barry walked beside her holding the leash.
Secondly, we’ve been having problems with the internet connection… or rather, I’ve been having problems with my connection, because the modem and router are located in Barry’s office, and my office is at the other end of the condo. You would think the wi-fi signal would have no problem reaching that far, but generally I’ve been getting two bars of signal strength while Barry gets five.
For the average computer user, perhaps not a problem; but since we work on the internet, and I’m the one who edits and uploads all the audios, a swift connection is required.
We looked into getting a second modem, but that would mean a separate account; so instead we turned to the possibility of a range expander.
“You can’t do that,” everybody told us. “It will never work. Just get a long ethernet cable and string it along the hallway.”
Well, we were determined to do it our way, and got a range expander. But then… uh-oh, it kind of looked like everyone was right. We plugged it in ten feet from my desk, and I still had only two bars of signal strength.
Barry looked at that and said, “there’s nothing but possibilities when I’m around.”
After an hour on the phone with Cisco support staff, we had a working range expander… and I have five bars of wi-fi signal strength!
Impossible? Bah, humbug!
So far the examples I’ve given you have been about other people saying something was impossible, and learning not to listen to the naysayers.
But what about when we’re our own worst critics? When we think our abilities are limited, and that something we ourselves want to do is impossible?
Saturday night, Barry and I went swimming at the local health club. After logging a few laps, he asked me how far I could swim underwater.
“Me? Not far… maybe a few feet,” I said. I’m a pretty good swimmer — at one point I had my lifeguard certification — but I’ve always like to stay near the surface, where the air is. Being underwater has never been my thing.
“I like to dive down, like I’m looking at fish… then I can usually stay under longer than I think I should be able to,” said Barry. “Want to see who can go the furthest?”
I gave him that look, and he said, “It’s not a competition.”
Well… ummm… since it wasn’t a competition…
“Okay, you go first,” I told him.
Barry went pretty far, and I knew there was no way I could even come close. He had gone almost the whole pool length before coming up for a breath.
Well, at least it wasn’t a competition… so I took a breath and started swimming underwater, watching the line on the bottom of the pool slowly inch by.
When I couldn’t hold my breath any longer, I started letting out my air bubbles slowly, and moving upwards towards the surface.
Then I saw Barry’s legs, where he was standing on the bottom of the pool, marking how far he had gone. And I kept going!
I only got a few inches past where he had gone… but it was farther than I had ever swam underwater in my life, and farther than I ever imagined I could go.
What that said to me was, “don’t judge, don’t limit… just do your best.” And sometimes your best will be better than you ever thought possible.
Impossible? Naw!
Nothing’s impossible.
P.S.Ā If you want to cultivate your own possibility-oriented mindset, and be unstoppable in everything you do, keep a look-out for a special opportunity we’ll have coming up for you in about a week.
That’s the event… your reaction to it will determine your outcome. š
Filed under: Personal Achievement, Self-Freedom / Emotional Mastery
[…] I just wrote an article over on the LWL Worldwide blog, called Taking the “Im” Off “Impossible”. […]
i`m the living example of nothing is impossible once u KNOW…believing is one thing but when ur back is against the wall do u KNOW…………
You are sooo right. We can accomplish so much if we simply believe we can and release those thoughts with great thanks and love to the universe. If we are source and vibration, then we can accomplish what seems miraculous.
I am not a swimmer but after a few lessons I can at least manage the elememtary backstroke. When in Hawaii a few years ago, as a non-swimmer, I went snorkling with family. I told them I couldn’t swim, well they said that is what I was doing.
Actually, as we were on a reef and I could not put my feet down, I just put may faith in God, spirit, source and swam and swam and swam. Something I never believed I could accomplish.
Life is filled with awesome wonder.
Thank you for sharing.
Sometimes it doesn’t take very much to achieve what was previosuly thought IMPOSSIBLE. History if full of examples but Roger Bannister breaking the 4 minute barrier for the mile is a wonderful lesson.
Both sports people and medical believed it IMPOSSIBLE, but he proved otherwise. Clearly it was only imposible because of their thinking! No sooner had he broken the barrier (with a TEAM by the way!) than many others did too. Now it’s achievable by good school athletes!
As a Master magician (www.MagicWorks.co.uk) I know just how small things can have a massive effect.
It doesn’t take adding a lot to make IMPOSSIBLE into I’M POSSIBLE.
John Gordon
The Infotainer
Hi Heather;
I really appreciated your article and will say that many of us do put self-imposed limitations on ourselves through different beliefs or thoughts or mind-sets, etc., and we often conclude or are convinced that something is not possible when it is. With that said, may I have your permission please to express a slightly different perspective on this subject? Thank you!
When we form a broad generalization construct as “nothing’s impossible”, then we set ourselves up for losses in the future. This will be an inevitable consequence driven by the Laws and mechanics of this universe. If we violate those Laws and mechanics with such broad generalized constructs, we must pay the price somewhere in time. So it would be much better, in my view, to consider the view that nothing is impossible within the realm of reality or realism. This is a very simple shift of view, but it doesn’t set us up for potential and/or inevitable losses. Words have more power than most people are aware of and it’s my view we must be rather careful how we formulate phrases as “nothing’s impossible” so as not to set ourselves up for something we don’t want in the future without realizing it.
Best regards,
John Lala, Jr.
P.S. Heather, I don’t mean to put a damper on what you wrote. I fully agree with the article and it’s intent. It’s just the phrase used that was of concern to me and the liability it poses that I felt I should comment on. Thank you.
WOW. That as quite an enthusiac article! I enjoyed reading it.
Um, well believing in the impossible and accomplishing the possible, I believe is doing the best that you can do.
When the results are satisyfing to yourself, then the accomplishments has their rewards.
Thank-you, Heather
Stephanie
Hi Heather,
You are right on the mark. When you believe and open your mind, ALL things are possible! I am the mother of a 17 year old young man who weighed 1 lb. 4 oz. at birth. He was born at 24 weeks (full term is 40 wks) and none of the doctors expected him to survive, let alone thrive and become the great kid he is. Way back in 1991 they were just beginning to make real strides in neo-natal care for extreme premies as he was called, yet they had no idea whether he would make it or not. Well, he’s not without some challenges, but he’s my angel here on earth and as a result I know you just gotta believe!
Thank you for this forum,
Ann McKoy
I like all the samples from Heather. I’m going for a rich, succesfull art business even though my family believes “art” is difficult to sell and that my husband who is the artist should still drive a school bus to earn a paycheck.
Thank you!
Much Love,
Astrid
Greetings:
Impossible?
I’m possible.
Jerarde
My husband watched in utter amazement tonight as I read a story to my children upside down and backwards (so they could see the pictures as I read) as effortlessly as I read in the regular fashion. “What? What’s the big deal?” I said. “I thought everybody could do that.” He replied with “Are you kidding me? I can’t believe you are doing that!”
I thought about it later, and it occurred to me that this skill that I learned from my Kindergarten teacher years ago, was never something that I thought was hard. Apparently everyone doesn’t think that it’s so easy, and I wondered why it is so easy for me. I then realized that it was easy for me because I never knew it was *supposed to be* hard.
I see now that this is the way everything in life works. It is only hard because we *believe* it is hard! When we shift our thinking and believe that it is easy, it becomes such.
Light and love,
Laura
Heather,
Taking the IM off (im)possible
becomes the āmanifestationā of otherwise
surprising miracles occurring, for your expansion.
Thanks for your examples.
Natural First Law does have its order.
There is so much to (un)learn in (re)discovering
our own innate blueprinted knowing.
How else but in attaining mastery for
āa life without limitsā
BE-coming more and more, an incurable
optimist? Exhilarating and freeing!
Albeit the scars that do intelligently heal.
Thank you LWL for creating this
warm āwelcomingā space here at āhomeā
Love and freedom to ALL,
Ruth
P.S. It appears that Mercury and Jupiter have
chosen themselves an interesting life, too!
Part of the equation it seems. Bless them
Wow! Great to hear others talking about everything being possible! Life’s exciting and we need to live every minute as though it’s our last and that means ignoring those people with negative thoughts… the ones who tell you, “you can’t do it that way” or “you’ll never do that”.
Everything is possible… just believe it!
Hi,
its so wonderful that this message is just what I needed at this time. I’ve just been informed that I have an interview to attend and I was a bit jittery about it. the reason being that I’ve not really prepared or I think that I am not preapared, that I dont know enough.
But from what I’ve read , I now know that my fears were unfounded. All I need to do is relax, be myself and see me enjoying the interview. And its such a wonderful feeling for sudddenly I know nothing can or will stand in my way unless I allow it.
Once again thank you.
In spite of what John Lala writes, I believe impossible and possible do revolve around the miraculous. So what are the conditions or un-conditions to the miraculous?
Life is eternal and therefore must have all the appropriate answers up its Magician’s Sleeve. The thing is, I can try to take it or sleeve it! Some will say there is nothing up my sleeve. never mind my trouser-leg. Who then the Muse?
eD
Hi Heather and fellow life travellers.
John Jr. has a point I can concur with. ANYTHING is possible. But not everything. Human reality is for now limited by our physical experience. But our physical experience is not the full story, or so many of us believe.
Hey Heather: Great inspiration! Just want to share a bit about my “impossible” dream. I just signed up to be in a contest by LeadSupreme where the one who generates the most leads in 10 days gets $10,000 and the software! I am what you could kindly call a rookie, but I felt excited about stretching myself in this way. And, I am learning so much! Who knows what I can do in the upcoming 9 days! I can’t wait to see. Thank you.
P.S. check out my blog above for ongoing reports of my progress, etc.
Hi,
I really believe that what you believe has to do with the possible or impossible. It’s what you make it, is what they say isn’t it.
Possible or impossible, believe and you can achieve anything.
At one point in my life I had a need to become ambidextrous (mostly related to athletic activities). Naturally, I was told that this was impossible. It took about 2 weeks and I was able to perform any activity with almost equal effect with both hands. Even more interesting is that this skill was like learning to ride a bicycle; it has never left me and now seems quite natural, although it does sometimes confuse people when I shift hands to write or throw a baseball. Definitely not impossible.
great story which I whole heartedly agree with’ iff I want to do something I just tell myself I can do it’ nothing is impossible’ just a little harder’ just ridden my mare after 11 yrs wow
Dear Heather, what a beautiful and enlighting blog, and forum Life without Limits. I learned many things through it myself and teaching them to my children too, but to sign in the free fourm is not possible because of the reffral problem. Wish you long healthy and happy life, to spread enlightment. Zahida
My brain simply stalls out when I am faced with this internet marketing stuff. I try so hard and have spent over $30K on internet marketing guru promises, scams, cons and hype. None of it has materialized into a single cent. There is clearly a BLOCK in my ability to grasp this field of internet marketing. I am fighting myself daily when I sit at the computer and try to figure out how to go forward. I clearly need a one on one telephone accessible coach and someone to guide my steps and there is no one on the internet who offers this service.
Any guidance or resource where this might be found would be appreciated.
Hi Everyone;
I enjoyed reading the different comments and how some indicated they were able to overcome limiting beliefs about themselves to go on and accomplish what they felt was not possible. That’s wonderful and inspiring. It’s awesome.
I’m rather new to blogs so I hope I’m in line by giving a second comment on my previous comment about being very careful about adopting generalized constructs into our own minds since there were a few responses to my first response — and rest assured I have no intention of using this forum to promote myself. I just wanted to offer a view about how the forces of this universe work so as to prevent liabilities. I did not mean to offend anyone.
In any regard, I’ll explain a bit further as to why we should not adopt certain phrases or beliefs unless they are truthful (fit reality) and are practical or within the framework of possibility. I’ll use a hypothetical example. Suppose that I adopt the view that “I wish I could be six feet tall” but, in reality, I’m only about five feet seven. What have I done? I have established in MY mind a thought that has been conditioned by MY energies. That thought now occupies time and space at the mental level. It’s now in MY space and in MY universe. But since I cannot possible become or be six feet tall this lifetime by any practical and realistic measures relative to my current body, I now have a mass in time and space that will be acted upon by the forces of this universe.
Ever here of the “Power of Manifestation” or “Manifesting”? If I do not ground that thought or belief or put it into the proper classification — please, please understand that this will not happen automatically but must be done consciously and with intention to do so — that thought will continue through time and space and will gain in power by the designs of this universe until it manifests.
There are a number of scenarios that could take place, but to keep this short let’s say I never properly handle that thought this lifetime. Guess what will happen everyone? If you guessed that I will come back in another lifetime and take on a body that will be six feet tall you guessed correctly. I manifested exactly what I created in thought in a previous lifetime.
So if I think “I can do anything” without qualifying that belief or phrase in my mind CONSCIOUSLY AND INTENTIONALLY, or keeping it in context or PRESENT TIME PRACTICALITIES, I set myself for the universe to show me that I have limitations that sheer will power or belief cannot overcome if the time and circumstances will not and do not allow to manifest. A difficult lesson to have to go through.
That was my point and I hope I clarified it to some extent. I’m all for going beyond limits if at all possible and we should not just accept that we can’t do something because somebody says so or we personally believe so when there is any possibility that we can go beyond our perceived limitations. By all means we should consider the “perceived impossible” as possible if it fits the present time reality of possibilities.
Thank you for hearing me out a second time. I appreciate it and the views that were expressed.
John
i enjoyed the article and the resultant feedback too.i have experienced a miracle before.i was down and out but fought through the negativity and tried to visualize and feel positive,clear thoughts of sucess.when i gave it all up to the universe and GOD,it happened very quickly.it seems to manifest and get into the proper receiving vibration, one must first clear out all the stuff-mostly fear thoughts within.it was difficult but it happened.now i m trying to create more happiness and abundance and with possibility thinking i soon hope to say that i have become a great sucess – and am abundant in every way.thanks for the insight.
Hi All.
Turning “CAN’T” into “I CAN” is a lifetime achievement. We are doing it everyday. When I get up and begin enjoying the day that is today, I can do anything I truly want to.
Yes John there may be physical restrictions but Roger Bannister overcame such “physical” restrictions and others have followed in his shoes, so to speak…
If we truly desire something and it is in acordance with our highest good, it can happen. Yes we have to input and then detach for God, or Providence or Nature, to act, And our true desire can hapen. Just let it happen!!