You Stopped Before You Found Out

It is WayMaker Wednesday. We are talking about the things you have already decided you cannot do.

The Question

How do you know it is not possible?

The Thought

When you say something is not possible, what are you saying exactly? That you tried and it failed? That someone told you? That it feels too far away? Most of the time, 'it's not possible' is not a fact. It is a feeling that stopped moving when you did.

The real problem is not the obstacle. It is that you made the call before you ran the test. You looked at the distance between where you are and where you want to be, and somewhere in that space you decided the ground runs out. But you have not been there. You do not actually know.

There is a simple way to check. Can you name the specific thing that makes it impossible? Not the fear. The fact. Who said it could not be done? What was their evidence? When you trace it back, most of the time the source is thin. A sentence from someone who also did not try. A moment of doubt that hardened into certainty over time.

The question is not whether you can do it. The question is: how do you know you can't? If you cannot answer that with evidence, you do not have an obstacle. You have an assumption that has been sitting where an obstacle would be.

Go test it.

Put It Into Action

The Source Test

• Write down the one thing you have declared impossible.
• Name the specific fact that makes it impossible. Not the feeling. The fact.
• Trace that fact back to its source: who said it, and what did they actually know?
• If the source is thin, you do not have an obstacle. You have an untested assumption.

If you know someone who has been stopped by something they have never actually tested, send them this.

Forge Forward,

Jon Mayo