When we believe something is impossible, it shuts down our creativity hard. How can you look for solutions when you know for a fact that there aren’t any?
But make one small shift and say, “this isn’t impossible, it’s only difficult,” and suddenly you’re charged up. Difficult things are interesting to solve, and the creative juices get flowing.
There’s a famous scene in Star Trek where Captain Kirk is faced with a simulated battle as a test. The test doesn’t hide it’s theme – the simulated battle is unwinnable, and the actual “test” is about how you react in that kind of situation. True to his character, Kirk hacks the computer before the exam to change the parameters of the simulation so he can win the battle. When confronted, he says: “I don’t believe in no-win scenarios.”
What a mindset! About a bajillion things throughout history have been “impossible” until someone did them. Almost universally, what follows is a bunch of other people doing the same thing, because now it isn’t impossible. It’s only difficult.
It was well-accepted for all of human history until very recently that humans couldn’t run a mile in under 4 minutes. That was simply out of our ability; humans can’t run a mile that quickly and more than we can fly. And then in 1954, Roger Bannister did it, obtaining the world record. That record lasted forty-six days. In the single year after this feat, more than a hundred people ran a sub-four-minute mile.
When everyone thought it was impossible, no one tried to do it. Once it was only difficult, it became a challenge to overcome.
What things do you think are impossible? Maybe, just maybe, they’re only difficult.
The Opportunity Machine 