“Impossible is a dare.” Muhammed Ali
The filters through which we see and understand our world are well-developed by the time we become adults. They may also become fairly rigid. These shift into stories we tell about why and who we are.. Why we are where we are, why we didn’t take the opportunity, why we thought the risk was too great, why we never pursued our (fill in the blank: career opportunity, more children, fewer children, art, speaking, writing that book, teaching).
We have a reason and a story for everything that we missed. Sometimes we even assign responsibility to various characters in our lives, never realizing there were others who took their place. We forgot to listen to them.
I was listening to a recording that LeBron James made about being a champion.
He spoke about how lucky he was to have a great mother. There was no father, but he started playing sports in fourth grade, and his coaches, teachers, and friends became his role models.
He remembered how many people along the way reflected their observations of how much more he had inside him and that it was up to him to dig it out and express it.
There is no doubt that he had an unusual drive to be his best. The raw talent was there, but he also noted that, just like everyone else, he had to work to get to the level of excellence that he has attained.
The takeaway here is to notice what messages from friends, strangers, teachers, mentors, etc. are you discounting. What old stories are you sticking to about why you can’t do something or the explanation of why you are the way you are making it seem impossible for you to reach out to others.
Instead, consider entertaining the notion that the messages reflected about you are to teach you to reach further, dig deeper and shock yourself with who you might become.
I was looking for some good quotes the other day and somehow I stumbled upon one by Muhammed Ali.
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
What spark do you need to remind yourself that you have been given a particular kind of magic that has the potential to contribute something worthwhile to your family, your friends, your community, your country, or even the world?
What will ignite your drive to find it?
What beliefs about yourself will you need to let go of in order to make way for bigger ideas of who you are to form in your head?
How will you practice until you start to get that you have so much music inside you that hasn’t yet been heard?
When will you start to realize that the word impossible that has held you back for so long, when broken into two parts says: I’m possible?
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