Impossible

8th March 2016

“I can’t do it.” 

“It’s impossible.”

“I’m not good enough.”

“Just give up, it’s too hard.”

“I’m gonna fail.”

They were my most used phrases. They were the statements I believed every single day. They were the declarations I lived by, the truths I fed myself and the testimony I proclaimed. 

I look around and I realise I’m surrounded by people who aren’t fulfilling their potential because they believe what the world has told them for too long. Surrounded by people who have listened to themselves for too long. Surrounded by friends who have no self confidence, no self esteem and put themselves down time after time after time. 

I might have a past that has majorly impacted the way I have looked at myself and what I ever thought I was capable of, but regardless of the voices that spoke into my life for so long, we live in a society where we are told too often that we ‘just aren’t good enough.’ That someone else will be ‘more capable’. We live in a world crammed, packed and over-crowded by magazines, tv’s, radio’s and social media broadcasting what some of the most successful people achieved today, earned this week and accomplished this month. In the spotlight in front of the camera’s in front of the billions of viewers; there’s no room for failure, there’s no capacity for error and there’s certainly no allowance for imperfection. Social media has become the biggest culprit of them all. If our lives don’t represent or resemble even an ounce of the success demonstrated by the people on our Facebook walls or on our flat screens – we are failing. We’re not as good. We’re not as capable and our potential is seen as inadequate.

If we tell ourselves something over and over again, it doesn’t take long to actually start believing it. If we watch something or someone over and over again, the result becomes the same. 

But you know what? It’s crap! I lived like it for so long. Too long! You see what you believe is what you live. If I have a lot of hatred in my heart, I become an angry person. If I stew on mistakes rather than moving forward and trying again, outwardly I become frustrated and insecure. If I believe I can’t do it and I’m not good enough – guess what? I’m not gonna get very far. 

I just can’t help but stop and wonder where this distorted image of ourselves has come from. I can’t help but stop and question how our society and so many people in it have sunk so low to think they are nothing and no one. 

Because let me tell you something. Let me just flip what those people have said to you upside down. Let me just throw what you have told yourself, so often, into turmoil. Let me just give you a few facts about yourself…

Do you know that our brains can read up to a thousand words per minute?? A thousand! We don’t often train our brains in that way anymore, but that’s what it’s capable of!

Do you know that inside our bodies there are 60 thousand miles of blood vessels? 60 thousand miles of blood vessels inside of you! You could circumnavigate the Earth two and a half times!!!

Do you know that YOU are made up of 7 cotillion atoms? Just to put that into perspective – there are 300 billion stars in our galaxy, add another 16 zero’s to that 300 billion and you just about get the number of atoms that you and me and every other adult walking around, is made up of. 

Do you know that humans are the best long-distance runners on the planet? Better than any four-legged animal. In fact, thousands of years ago we used to run after our prey until the prey died of exhaustion. 

Do you know that one full head of human hair is strong enough to support 12 tonnes of weight? The largest and heaviest elephant recorded only weighs 6 tonnes!!! 

For every pound of fat or muscle gained, our body creates 7 miles of new blood vessels.

Your body produces 25 million new cells every SECOND! Every 13 seconds, you produce more cells than there are people in the United States of America. 

In one day, your blood travels 12,000 miles around your body. That is four times the distance across the US from coast-to-coast.

Don’t ever say you’re nothing. 

And now let me tell you just a couple more facts about those so called incredible people who we see on our TV screens every day and who we compare ourselves to all the time… The ones who are capable of so much more than us. The ones who are just ‘better’. 

Do you know that Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard and failed his first business attempt? Yep he’s the guy that later created the global empire that is Microsoft. 

Did you know that Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he lacked imagination and had no good ideas. After that he started a number of businesses but they didn’t last too long and they ended with bankruptcy and failure. Today he rakes in billions from all round the world. 

Do you know that Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was 4? He couldn’t read until he was 7 and his parents and teachers thought he was mentally handicapped, slow and anti-social. He was expelled from school and was refused admittance to a science school he applied for. Winning a nobel prize, he went on to change the face of modern physics and in the world’s eyes is a total genius. 

Thomas Eddison was told by his teachers he was too stupid to learn anything. After finishing school, work was no better. He got fired from his first two jobs for not being productive enough. Even as an inventor, Eddison made a thousand unsuccessful attempts, before eventually creating the lightbulb. 

Winston Churchill; struggled right through school and failed the 6th grade. He faced many years of political failures and was defeated in every election for public office. At the age of 62 he went on to become our Prime Minister. 

Abraham Lincoln, went to war as a captain and returned as a private (which is the lowest position possible). He started numerous businesses, which all failed and was defeated in multiple runs he made for public office. Today he is remembered as one of the greatest leaders of our nation. 

Oprah Winfrey, endured an incredibly tough and often very abusive childhood as well as numerous career setbacks including being fired from her job as a television reporter because she was apparently unfit for TV. Today she is one of the most iconic faces on TV as well as one of the richest and most successful woman in the world. 

Harrison Ford was told he didn’t have what it takes to be a movie star. Marilyn Monroe was told by modelling agents she should consider becoming a secretary instead. Steven Spielberg was rejected from the University of Southern California School of Theatre, Film and Television three times. J.K. Rowling was completely penniless, severely depressed, divorced and trying to raise a child on her own while attending school and writing a novel. She went from depending on benefits to one of the richest woman in the world. Elvis Presley was told he wouldn’t get anywhere and should go back to driving a truck. The Beatles were told by recording companies they didn’t like their sound and guitar music was on its way out. Beethoven was incredibly awkward on the violin when he was young and despite his love for composing, his teachers told him he would never make it as a musician or a composer. 

And finally let me finish with Michael Jordan – probably known as THE best basketball player of all time. Jordan was actually cut from his high school basketball team but luckily he didn’t let this setback stop him from playing the game. Jordan has stated “I have missed more than 9 thousand shots in my career. I have lost almost 3 hundred games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And THAT is why I succeed.”

———————-

And that right there – that’s the key. 

Do you know what all these people have in common apart from success? 

It’s Failure. 

But each one of them didn’t let it stop them. They didn’t start listening to that little voice of negativity that would have no doubt also been in their minds. No, they didn’t let anything get in the way. No matter how rough a starts, how big the obstacles or how harsh the voices telling them they weren’t good enough – they kept going. 

Can you imagine a life without Harry Potter, Disney, Beethoven, Microsoft or light bulbs?? Can you imagine how different life would look now if so many of them had given up at the first hurdle? How different their lives would have looked? 

But they’re no different to you and me! The only difference is the choice of who and what they choose to listen to. The determination to keep getting up every time they fall. And the discipline to do whatever it will take to get out that potential that lies in each and every one of us. 

Our bodies are walking miracles and our minds are capable of more than we will ever be able to fully understand. 

Let’s not give up because it’s too hard. Let’s be careful who we choose to believe and what we choose to listen to. Let’s be wise in the words we choose to let our mouths speak out. Let’s become people who are capable, unwavering, tenacious and persevering. 

Let’s stop saying I can’t do it and believe we can do it. 

Trust that we are good enough.

Accept that we will fail, but understand that failure also brings success.

And let’s change that big word impossible and finally just accept that really it IS Possible.