There's No Such A Thing As Impossible
POSSIBLE IS NOW THE NEW WORD FOR IMPOSSIBLE
The idea that one day an object might be send into space, let alone put humans into orbit, was long regarded as outrageous – perhaps, even impossible. But when the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, was eventually launched in 1957, and the first manned spaceflight followed four years later, that was an amazing possibility. The space flight idea was first regarded impossible, considering that to travel in space a craft must reach break out velocity. For example, for a vehicle to leave Earth, that should be 11.2 kilometres per second – which is 1,238 kilometres per hour.
Image Credit: NASA/Asif A. Siddiqi
In his novel, From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne even proposed giant cannon – a sudden burst of acceleration. However, calculations have shown that no cannon could be powerful enough to achieve break out velocity and not kill any passengers instantaneously. Thus you may agree that perhaps this skepticism was reasonable then, since the correct technologies were not available. However, this idea which had seemed to be impossible came to be invented and was made possible.
The two rocket researchers, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Robert Goddard, worked independently when they came to publish the spaceflight idea in the 20th century. Tsiolkovsky’s work was ignored outside the USSR, while Goddard’s ideas were criticized. Both of them neither lived to see their idea been made possible.
The word “impossible”, although has one meaning, it’s descriptive in many different senses. Many of today’s scientific inventions accomplished were at once viewed as impossible because at the time they were beyond scientists’ ability to invent and foresee. Thus, in terms of humans’ current knowledge and capacity, only can we say something is impossible. Thus far, it’s improbable or else, possible.
“Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible.” – Cherie Carter-Scott
From atmospheric flight to space flight, who knows what’s next? Maybe something else’s flight lies possible somewhere in the future. Impossible is indeed the word we often use to describe what we currently see to be beyond our own ability to understand and/or attain. After all, we’re imperfect human beings, and because of that we have limitations. When the goings gets tough we feel the limit, and then all we want to see is the impossible. Note: all we want to see… We can choose to see the opposite. We can choose to visualize the impossible and begin to see it as possible. The fact that we have limitations and we are imperfect does in no way standardize our mental power. Humans are the only intelligent creatures on Earth who are mentally capable, and that is what makes us, in a certain way, extraordinary. But how exactly can we choose to see possible in the impossible?
See Possible First In The Impossible You
As a young person facing challenges and temptations every step of the way, life can seem a bit impossible sometimes. But being young and constantly maturing in this world you’re learning to reason and to develop your own assertive as life tests you with its trials. Your youth is the stage where reality starts to set in, and at first this reality may seem impossible in a sense that you might feel that some things are above your shoulders and you can’t conquer them. However, as time goes you will realize that reality is exactly what you need to confront with in order that you become an assertive person who is able to stand firm for what you believe in and the things that you value.
Think, for instance, of an assiduous student who swots hard everyday for the oncoming exam. But when the exam date finally comes he fails to achieve even just a passing mark. Deciding to lose hope altogether, the student concludes in his head that it’s over with him. Then again, think about a young pessimistic girl with a serious chronic illness which’s making it hard for her to chase her dreams in life. And because of her pessimism, she loses all hope about her future. Of course, you may try to emphasize with these two young people. However, it is the moment you decide to lose hope in your life, and while you’re still breathing, that you become no different from someone sitting in darkness and unable to believe that what he cannot see is exactly what he’s seeing. You do not just lose your happiness and hope for the future, you also lose the treasures that you could have received just for persevering and keeping on moving.
What the student is failing to see here is that no matter how hard he tries to study, he may be having memory or concentration problem that he first needs to attend to, and only then can he find a way to understand his studies better and be able to apply them both theoretically and practically in life. Confronting the problem first, understanding it before you can immerse yourself in the whole process leading to the solution, obliterates the problem and the process becomes smooth, easy and quicker. This is just one of the treasures the student could’ve learned from his situation.
On the other hand, the young girl is failing to see that when one door closes the other one opens. This is how life works, not all doors can shut close on you. There are some things we may want to do in life but we can’t because of our situation or state of health. Therefore the only wisdom in such a case is to look for alternatives, move away from the closed doors and go through those that are still open for you. If bread is finished in the bread tin, porridge is there in the pot, there is something to eat. If both bread and porridge are not there and there’s nothing to eat in the house, there is a house with bread and porridge next door. There are another houses in the front opposite, back opposite, on the other side of your next door neighbor, there must be something to eat and someone who will help you because you’re helping yourself.
True, the two situations above and serious more others not mentioned can definitely depress you. They can make growing up seem impossible. But if you can learn to challenge your perception and debate yourself, you will soon realize that every situation is just a passing preparatory test only entering your life in favor to prepare you for a reality that’s teeming with lots and lots of what you will initially see as the impossible. So if you don’t learn to visualize the impossibilities you’re facing in your life right now and begin to see future possibilities in them, then you’re up for the next many impossibilities that will dispute you.
“We all want to believe in impossible things, I suppose, to persuade ourselves that miracles can happen.” – Paul Auster, The Book Of Illusions.
Break the word impossible into two words and see what it will give you: Impossible = Im + possible. If you type the word Im in your device and press enter your device automatically corrects it to I’m. So I'm + Possible = I’m possible. And indeed, you are possible! And so is everything else in your life possible.
On Luke 18:27 Jesus Christ said, “The things impossible with men are possible with God.” If, and only if life may feel impossible, know that it’s not, because the Creator, yes, the one who gave you life, observes life and its challenges as nothing close to impossible.
Andre Gide said, “There are many things that seem impossible only so long as one does not attempt them.” Tsiolkovsky’s work was ignored, and Goddard withdrew from the public gaze after contemptuous criticism of his ideas. Their ‘what seemed to be’ impossible space flight idea, first became possible in their minds when other scientists did not see it as such. And although the two of them died, too early to witness their idea come into reality, their attempt to crack the problem of a cannon that could both be so powerful enough to achieve escape velocity and not kill passengers, led to the launching of Sputnik and the first manned spaceflight later. Tsiolkovsky and Goddard believed in the possibility of their idea notwithstanding the impossibilities the world threw at their faces.
During your youth, you’ll come across characters and situations that might want to take you down by making you feel weak and inadequate, and by undermining your individuality and your deep belief in your own dignity. Instead of believing them, instead of believing in all the impossibilities the world and people would display for your eyes to see, always seek to look through them and feel that your life is possible, and that no situation, nobody, no anything you could possibly think of can make it impossible for you. You are here. You are alive. And the only thing that is impossible of you is returning to where you were before birth pushed you into this cold, impossible world you were born to thaw it out with possibilities and warm it up. So warm it up!