What is Possible?

The human mind is crazy. For many of us, we are full of doubts. We constantly think we can't do something and then put less effort in to it because of this mindset. We have a hard time believing we can accomplish amazing things, even when we see others doing it. They must be different or just better or genetically superior. When we don't believe, we can't do everything possible to succeed. The problem is we will never really know what we are capable of doing until we do it.

To achieve amazing things, we have to push ourselves in ways we never though possible. Our minds must remain open to possibility and we have to allow, yes allow, ourselves to push harder than before. We have to believe we can do anything we want to accomplish, no matter what anyone else says or does. There can be no doubts or fears, only belief and drive.

Many people thought it impossible a human could run a 4 minute mile. Roger Bannister didn't listen to them and in 1954 did the impossible. This has now been done by many more people. What was once impossible is possible. Many people never thought a human would stand on the summit of Mount. Everest. This was before  Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit in 1953. This has also been accomplished by many people since. What was once impossible is possible. We've put people in space and on the moon; we've created machines allowing people to stay under water for months; we can speak with anyone in the world instantaneously; we can fly; we can bring people back to life after death. All of this was accomplished because someone believed it could be done.

Creating amazing things isn't easy. Not everyone will do it. Most of us will never push ourselves beyond what we we think we can do. We won't really know what our limits are because we will never test them. Without pushing these limits, we won't do the impossible. What do you want to do? Besides your limiting doubts and lack of belief, what's stopping you? Stop doubting and start believing. Start doing. Your goal may not change the world, but getting there will change your world. What are you actually capable of doing?

Have Fun

Here's a little secret about me: I love the Olympics. I love the competition and watching the athletes push themselves and the beauty of someone doing the best they can. I love the athletes' stories...knowing where they come from and why they do what they do. I love watching world records fall and I love seeing people having fun.

When I say I love seeing people having fun, I am talking about the athletes. Yes, they are competing. Yes, many of them won't even come close to winning. But, many of them really seem to be having fun. This is their job and they have put in way more hours of work than we could imagine. They train hard. They compete hard. Through it all, they really seem to be enjoying themselves.

Now, I realize these athletes are competing in sports and not filing paperwork or writing reports or managing a bunch of staff, but they are still working hard. The fact that they are are having fun, makes it easier to work hard. When we enjoy what we do, we are going to put in more effort and spend more time "practicing" to become great. We are going to want to show up every morning and do whatever we can to succeed.

If the athletes on the world stage, competing in the biggest event in their life, are having fun doing it, shouldn't we all strive to find something we enjoy? I know the vast majority of us are never going to do anything close to Olympics, but we have the ability to do what matters the most to us. We can choose to be miserable doing it or we can choose to have fun. Like the athletes in London, the best work is going to be done by those of us who choose to have fun doing it.

We all want to have fun. We want to wake up every morning and feel excitement about the day ahead. Like many of these athletes, we realize most of our days are going to be repetitive, doing the same things over and over. We can complain about this and be unhappy or we can find ways to make it interesting. We can look for ways to have fun. We can figure out what we need to do to enjoy our days. We can work hard, trying to become the best we can at what we do, but unless we are having fun doing it, is it really worth it?

While you are watching the Olympics during the next two weeks, figure out how you can have more fun doing what you do. The more fun we have while putting in the work, the better our work will become. Give it a shot...have some fun and see what happens.