What Impossible Thing Can You Do Today?
Going well beyond your comfort zone
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Would you like to venture into the extraordinary and leave the ordinary behind? The Matrix movies portrayed humans stuck in a simulation. Are you trapped in a simulation of your own making, a place of comfort or discomfort? If so, how can you make a bold move to leap out of it?
Recently, I found myself stuck in my comfort zone. This time, I remembered a coaching pattern I co-developed many years ago. A question emerged from a study early in my career. In 2005, Computer Sciences Corporation asked me to study current innovation approaches. Cirque du Soleil stood out because it prospered while traditional circuses faltered. It had a storyline, more stylish costumes, and combined acrobatics with dance. Its CEO began each day asking,
What is impossible that I’m going to do today?
This impossibility question resonated within me for over a year. I brought it to a Neuro-Semantics developers conference in 2006. A goal at the conference was to learn how to create Neuro-Semantics patterns to “run your own brain.” You could use the patterns during coaching sessions and in trainings.
At the conference, Michael Hall and I led an effort to create a pattern around the impossibility question. This month, in thinking about being stuck in my comfort zone, I reviewed the pattern and applied it to myself. Using this pattern, you step out of your usual way of thinking. And then you move to what seems like an impossible goal to create your own matrix for success. Below, I’ll illustrate the approach.
Have you ever accomplished what seemed impossible?
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. Arthur C. Clarke
As a third generation Italian-American, I was the first in my family to go to college and wanted to be a physicist. Yet, I was not confident I could ever achieve my dream. Two…
