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The adidas strapline, ‘Impossible is Nothing’ (IIN), back in 2007, led to the co-creation of ‘The Winner’s Secret’ (TWS)….. and to this day, I feel truly blessed and immensely proud to have been instrumental in the launch of such an awe-inspiring (not to mention, somewhat risky!?!) initiative. I really believe, however, that sometimes we do need to take the odd risk. It’s the only way we learn – by stepping out of our comfort zones. As safe and secure as they may seem, comfort zones are also deadly boring and provide very little opportunity for any of us to grow.
During this pandemic, even reaching for the possible (never mind, the impossible!) may feel utterly futile, to the very point of despair. Every day pleasures eluding us and no clear vision for the future, all making it extra difficult to hang on to hope.
If, like me, however, you’ve been committed to life-long learning as the focus of your personal and professional development, it may have felt something of a challenge at times, these last few months, to update, let’s say, or even review your ‘wheel of life’…..wheel? What wheel? The spokes fell off ages ago! ……and what life, I hear you scream!!
As horrendous as it is, this time of uncertainty is simply a huge hiatus – admittedly, it’s taking its time hanging around, but nothing lasts forever, and it is definitely going to change – as indeed, inevitably, everything does. So, are we just going to sit on our laurels from now until it’s all over, doing nothing to grow ourselves or develop? Or, are we finally going to wake up to the realisation that, while it may be great that the current situation has made us all slow down to reflect and re-assess our lives, this ‘inner work’ thing is a lifetime occupation and, once you’ve started on your ‘road to re-invention’, you can never really afford to stop…..not unless you want to stagnate and deflate yourselves even further.
The peaks and troughs are there for all of us to experience, with or without this pandemic. We hit the highs of holidays (when we had them!) and the lows of life’s listlessness, on a regular basis, so we still need to ask ourselves: Am I healthy? Am I happy? Am I prosperous? Am I creatively fulfilled? Do I feel safe? Do I feel secure?
As a child, it’s easy to take on all the criticisms we may hear and eventually believe the things people say when they tell you that everyone is bigger, better, smarter and better looking than you. Most of us then create our lives based on the notions of this little five-year-old child and, guess what? When we’re at our most vulnerable (as we all will have been during lockdown), we end up stuck, living within the limiting beliefs of that same five-year-old, scared witless about the future.
Our limitations stop us from expressing and experiencing all that’s possible in life. The next time someone says to you, “Nobody has ever done it that way before”, just say, “So what?”. There must be a hundred different ways to do something, so do it the way that feels right for you and tell everyone else “to go and do one”! We already tell ourselves often enough that we’re not strong enough, or young enough, or old enough or tall enough…….so let’s stop, right now! Even having the “right” education becomes an issue. There is no such thing as the “right” education. Education is simply something that has been created by groups of people who say, “you can’t do xyz unless you do it our way”. We then accept this as gospel, it becomes a limitation and we don’t go beyond it, keeping us stuck in a rut of ruination!
Once you let go of limitations, you unleash all your innate potential. The word, educo, is the true meaning of education – to draw from within. Once you do this, you’ll discover that you are smart, that you are good-looking, and that whatever sex you choose to be, you can do anything you set your mind to do!
It’s only when you think you know it all that you may have a problem, because the trouble with knowing it all is that you don’t grow and nothing new can come in, because you believe you are the way you are and can’t do anything more to change.
If you truly believe there is an infinite power or intelligence bigger than all of us, running the entire show, then surely, and most definitely, Impossible really is Nothing!!