Impossible is an opinion!

“Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion!” – Muhammad Ali

Prior to May 6, 1954, most scientific experts believed that a man running a sub-four-mile physiologically impossible, Yet, Roger Bannister stunned the world running 3:59.4 despite widespread belief that it defied human limits.

The mindset “Impossible is an opinion” treats limits as temporary beliefs, not fixed reality. It shifts focus from what cannot be done to what might become possible through belief, action, learning, and persistence.

“Impossible” is usually a description of how something feels, not what is objectively true; it reflects fear, doubt, or lack of current knowledge and courage

The great heavy weight boxing champion Muhammad Ali captured this with: “Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion… Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”

Bannister later reflected that his achievement was a triumph of mindset over perceived limits.

The Elephant Rope

“Whatever Your Mind Can Conceive and Believe, It Can Achieve.” – Napoleon Hill, “Think and Grow Rich”

A gentleman was walking through an elephant camp, and he spotted that the elephants weren’t being kept in cages or held by the use of chains.

All that was holding them back from escaping the camp, was a small piece of rope tied to one of their legs and secured to a stake.

As the man gazed upon the elephants, he was completely confused as to why the elephants didn’t just use their strength to break the rope and escape the camp. They could easily have done so, but instead, they didn’t try to at all.

Curious and wanting to know the answer, he asked a trainer nearby why the elephants were just standing there and never tried to escape.

The trainer replied;

“when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The only reason that the elephants weren’t breaking free and escaping from the camp was that over time they adopted the belief that it just wasn’t possible.

Moral of the story:

No matter how much the world tries to hold you back, always believe that you can achieve your goals and realize your purpose. Believing you can become successful and a your purpose is the most important step in actually achieving the prize.

Believing is achieving!

The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, believed in their flying machine when the majority said it was impossible. Their unwavering belief was based on thousands of hours of research and experiments. And, the underlying secret ingredients were action and perseverance, also known as hard work and pressing on.


References:

  1. https://wealthygorilla.com/10-most-inspirational-short-stories/