Chronicles of a Human Being

I have an ‘impossible syndrome’, that means that each time I hear someone say that something is impossible, my brain goes crazy with thinking this is so wrong!

Have you ever heard ‘you can’t make it!’? Or ‘nobody could make until now, why do you think you are better than them?’ Or maybe, the ultimate in my opinion, ‘yes, it might sound good in theory, but it is practically impossible’.

These statements make my brain go wild, as I have seen numerous times that the impossibility for a thing to happen is only in the mind, not in the real world. Actually, all the things that the mind can think about, can be done! And this can be seen over the centuries, as with Michelangelo and his helicopter, and with Jules Verne and his submarines and ships. Even if we don’t have the technology or the knowledge right now, that doesn’t make it impossible, that just postpones it. This happens with the technological stuff, as well as with our brains.

If it’s easy with technology, and it seems that over the years we managed to gain some trust with it, and if we see something doesn’t work today, we hope or at least we expect for it to work tomorrow, it seems that we are not doing the same with our brain or mind.

The brain is an unknown, uncharted completely yet, territory. And the mind is even more unknown to us. Although scientific progress has been made, somehow, we remain cautious and suspicious about the new discoveries. And this is just because the mind is something we take personally and it’s not comfortable to change. In the end, it is not comfortable to change ourselves!

Once a neurological path is made in the brain, it will definitely take a while to be undone and changed according to the new situation or to the new reality. Because, yes!, the reality around us is constantly changing. But the mind likes learned patterns and known information. In this way it can react faster, anticipate (we all hate the uncertainty of the upcoming unknown, right?) and do a better job at keeping us alive. However, that also makes us rigid, with a lack of flexibility in making decisions or changing the already made decisions according to the newest and latest facts, and with learning new things (I have heard a lot of people saying you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but guess what? Old dogs actually learn the best!) But still, neurological paths can be undone, new things can be learnt and what yesterday was out of the limits of what we knew, today can be a commonly known fact.

Yes, it can be difficult at the first glance to do something new, it can take a lot of energy, time and effort. But that doesn’t mean it is impossible. Also, if it can’t be done by someone, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done by anyone. It’s just a matter of perspective, but as long as you think that something is possible, the mind will start working towards finding a way.

A very dear person to me once said ‘where there is a will, there is a way!’. Of course, in the beginning I dismissed that, considered it to be impossible, but once I relaxed my mind and learnt it to accept the ‘impossible’, it got clearer and clearer to me that impossible does not exist!

‘Impossible’ hides the minds’ weakness when confronted with change and flexibility. ‘Impossible’ is the keyword for not even giving a try and for avoiding under all circumstances to really go outside of our effort zone. So next time the thought ‘this is impossible’ crosses your mind, ask yourself why you have that opinion, what could change it, go to the land of ‘science-fiction’ if necessary and most of all, go to your motivation: what keeps you from doing it?, what scares you if that idea becomes true?, what do you feel you might lose if the impossible becomes possible?, how much effort do you think you have to spend to make it happen? And, most of all, how would your life change if that was possible?

After answering these questions in an honest way, you may finally agree with me that ‘impossible’ doesn’t exist!