The Best Problems Are Impossible

I love impossible problems. I love when you solve a once seemingly impossible problem and then have this realization of “wait a minute, if I was wrong about ________* what else could I be wrong about!?”.

People use the word never a lot. I could never do that. That would never work. You’ll never get there. It’s easy to say it won’t work. It’s easy to be a critic.

If only we all had the mind of a child. To children, there are no limits, no barriers, no hesitations, no red tape, no reason not to try the impossible.

I surprise myself all the time about how many things I’ve thought were impossible. The times I’ve said, “that could never work, I’m certain of it” are countless. I find the more certain I am about something, the more propensity I have to be wrong about it. And according to the Black Swan Theory developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb seemingly impossible things have happened in our world throughout our existence.

I love trying to solve impossible problems. Well, I guess I don’t really believe anything is impossible. I don’t think you should either. An impossible problem is just a regular problem we haven’t asked the right question about yet. 

Every time you’ve had a certain belief in something that no matter what you thought, you’d never change your mind, and then in an epiphany you do, it’s in these moments your mind grows in a major way. These are very important moments in life. Major paradigm shifts. They teach your brain not to accept absolutes, to think more fluidly, to not completely believe your own bullshit.

The only limits you will experience in life will be the ones you create for yourself.

But when you’re wrong about something that means you’ve made a hypothesis, you’ve experimented and you’ve discovered a way not to do it. You’ve tried, you’ve failed, and you’ve learned. As long as you don’t give up, you will never truly fail.

Impossible problems are tomorrows breakthroughs. Don’t let  people tell you ‘that’ will never happen, don’t believe them if they says it’s impossible. The progress of our world depends on you ignoring what is commonly known as impossible.

Dream big.

Counter-intuitive but very profound. Think about it.

*I never thought I could make the volleyball team in grade 6, I never thought I could memorize all my lines for 1-800-Christmas-a musical I was a part of in Grade 8, I never thought I could make banana chocolate chip muffins, I never thought I could run a half marathon, I never thought I could sew, at one time I never EVER thought I could be the president of the Business Students Society, I never thought I could come up with a billboard idea and have it used in Regina, I never thought I would end up not working a regular 8-5 job, I never thought I could make a video every day for 16 days without having the videographer Riley strangle me, I never thought I could coach my own volleyball team, I never thought I would get rid of my Blackberry, I never thought someone would pay me money to speak to them, I never thought being on a non-profit board could be fun, I never thought I could change an organization internally, I never thought my happiness was directly correlated with how many people I’m affecting on a regular basis.

For more impossible quotes check out this kickass site, it’s where I found that very first quote about impossible being nothing. You know which one I’m talking about. 😉