You know how sometimes you hear some little thing and it sticks – it resonates in some way that captures your attention. Recently, my honey Ron and I got around to enjoying Johnny Depp in Alice In Wonderland. What ”stuck’ for me was a line near both the beginning and end – “think 6 impossible things before breakfast”.
It happens, because I believe in life-long learning – that after more than 20 years in business, I am in Business Boot Camp with Patty Keating. It was challenging me to project forward – something that pretty much defeats me. I am much better at scanning for opportunities and following them – that’s a different post. Anyway, since I had just seen the movie and the phrase “think 6 impossible things before breakfast” was stuck I decided to try an experiment. Would writing six impossible things every day unblock my thinking and allow me to project forward in time?
It did actually, but something more amazing and wonderful happened. Every impossible thing I wrote down not only expanded my thinking but it triggered my thinking. My mind began shifting perspective, turning the impossibles upside down, bringing into consciousness clarity about my wants and feelings in ways that began to show why what I wrote was possible rather than impossible!
One of the first things I wrote was ” I own a beach house in Yachats” – my favorite spot on the Oregon Coast – impossible for several reasons but finances being the biggest. As soon as I wrote it, I found myself thinking – why do I want to own another house? Am I not in the process of simplifying my life? What I really want is to spend more time in Yachats so why not find a rental or time share and plan several trips. Not nearly the expense and work of owning a vacation property. Yachats was totally possible when I looked at it from the right perspective and clarified what I really wanted. Wonderful!
Not every impossible thing I wrote found an immediate path to possible, by every single one started a rich thinking process and many of them have become possible in a short period of time. It also generally expanded my ability to think bigger in a powerful and exciting way, which was the point of the dialogue in the movie. You have to think impossible things, in order to achieve impossible things. Powerful! What do you think? Are you willing to try the same experiment? Write down 6 impossible things and see what happens.