What IS Possible? It's Pretty Much Up To You!

Can any of us really say that we have reached the pinnacle in our personal, professional or spiritual lives? Certainly, most of us have achieved a degree of success and in many cases we have won the applause of our peers. We may even be the envy of others in our profession, but does that mean that we have exhausted all the wonderful possibilities that exist for us?

Several decades ago, Dale Carnegie reminded us that “We all have possibilities we don't know about. We can do things we don't even dream we can do.” Which simply means that no matter how far up the ladder we have risen or even how far down the ladder we may have slid, we all within us the ability to dream new dreams and set new visions of what our lives can become and the contributions we can make to our family, our companies and the world around us.

All worthwhile goals involve daring to aspire to new heights. When we aspire to new heights we begin to think Robert Browning, who stated without fear of contradiction that “Our aspirations are our possibilities.”

I do not know how many times I have been approached after making a speech or conducting a workshop by people who have said that their possibilities are limited for one reason or another. Upon examination, the problem in most cases was that they had allowed someone or some circumstance to smother the aspirations that they had, thus obscuring not only their own possibilities but any hope they may have had of attaining them.

If you’re one of those people who see possibilities but dismiss them I suggest you write the words of one of America’s great business leaders on a card and refer to it several times a day. That leader, Henry Ford who once told an audience, “I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible.”

Now, you might be asking, just how do I go about allowing my goals to open my mind to new possibilities? Well, if your goal is something that has grabbed you, and it is something that is based on an aspiration that will be beneficial to not only yourself, your family and other people then all you need to do is to unleash the creative power of your subconscious mind.

The very fact that your mind has grasp this goal indicates that you have within you the capacity to not only conceive it but to define and refine it into something attainable. Now this will not happen overnight, and sometimes that which we originally hoped to achieve becomes modified as we progress toward it and we see bigger possibilities..

Finally, I am sure that most of you are like me, during your career you have seen great possibilities and set goals only to encounter difficulties, opposition and setbacks. Perhaps you have even thrown in the towel and given up or decided to simply settle for less than your heart told you use to settle for. My old friend, Norman Vincent Peale once pointed out that “lots of people limit their possibilities by giving up too easily.” And in the face of adversity, discouragement, opposition and setbacks he urged us to “become a possibilitarian…No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities -- always see them, for they're always there.”

Opening our minds to new possibilities not only helps us define and refine new and exciting goals it also provides us with a renewal of determination to get up and try again when life or circumstances seems to have knocked us down.

This idea of seeing possibilities and setting goals to empower us is not a new concept. Indeed, it isn’t even a product of the capitalist system. In fact, Epictetus, who was an eminent Stoic philosopher, born as a slave at Hieropolis in Phyrgia in 55 AD. Reminded his followers to “First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
Have a great and profitable week!
Robert Hidde
bob@confidentliving.com