The great boxer, Muhammad Ali, had a good handle on the impossible. He fought his way through his impossibilites and became the heavyweight champion of the world.
For him, impossiblity was a dare. It was a challenge that he faced, dominated, and defeated. Muhammad Ali understood impossibility better than most, and he defined it in a way that anyone can understand.
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
It turns out the impossible is not always impossible.
Impossible dares you to live your dreams.
It's a test of whether you are willing to do whatever it takes to make your dreams come true.
Everything in your life fits into two columns.
One column is labeled possible, and the other is labeled impossible.
Your job is to move everything over to the possible column.
With God, all things are possible. Impossible doesn't exist in God's universe, and it shouldn't exist in yours.
Impossible is not in God's vocabulary, and it shouldn't be in yours.
Jesus did not believe in impossible and neither should you.
On more than one occasion, Jesus said, "All things are possible", and "nothing is impossible." Jesus said it both ways to make it clear that everything is possible when you believe.
Jesus meant it when he said that all things are possible. He wasn't trying to frustrate you by encouraging you to pursue impossible dreams. He was telling you to get in agreement with God so that all things are possible in your life.
Everything is possible isn't a pipedream. It's the way God made things work. As you believe, so shall it be done unto you.
It is time to take the impossible dare and do those things you used to think were impossible.
For my entire life, I have been moving things from the impossible column over to the possible one.
Half way through university, I looked impossibility in the eye and changed my major to premed. I navigated the seas of impossibility for two years before I was accepted into medical school, and I moved medical school into the possibility column.
For four years of hard study, I climbed what seemed like an impossible mountain of anatomy, physiology, and clinical medicine until I became a doctor.
For four more years, I ascended a mountain of ophthalmic knowledge to become a board certified eye surgeon with a sub-specialty in retina and vitreous surgery.
When I was run over by the Mac Truck of Life and nearly died in a car accident, I spent months slogging though the Dismal Swamp of Discouragement, but I never stopped looking impossiblity in the eye, and I never surrendered to despair.
When I decided to sail around the world on my catamaran with my family, I sailed on the Seas of Impossibility for eleven years until the circumnavigation was complete.
For ten years I took the impossible dare as I wrote books on positive thinking and positive spirituality.
For the rest of my life, my Impossible Dare is to make the Positive Thinking Network the home of positive thinking on the world wide web. It's the premier place where people come from all nations to learn about positive thinking.
Many times I felt like I had taken things to the limit, but on further examination, it was clear I simply had enough. I was done and was unwilling to do whatever it takes to continue. Hitting the wall of absolute limits has never been a problem. The envelope of possibility is infintely large, and the likelihood of encountering absolute limits is infinitesimally small. There are no limits. There are only limiting beliefs.
In the grand scheme of things, my grand schemes seem fairly insignificant. In a global sense it's easy to feel as if my life counts for nothing, or at most, counts for little. When someone tells me that I shouldn't be doing things that are important to me, and that I'm wasting my life, they are really saying that my dreams don't count in their scheme of things.
I am a daktari without borders. I am not sure when and where borders disappeared from my mind, but sometime in the last quarter century, I became a citizen of the world. Wherever I am on planet earth, I feel at home in my borderless world. Find out what it's like to live without borders.
When my life is over and on judgment day I stand in the final line up with all the rest, I hope millions of people can point their finger at me, pick me out of the line up, and say, "He's the one. That's definitely him. He's different from the rest. He didn't conform, and he is guilty of living his dreams.
You are never safe from negation. Unchecked negativity can rapidly flush the achievements of a lifetime down the drain. If you ever reach your dreams, it will be because you stopped listening to the voice of fear and negation. You stopped looking at your limitations and stopped constructing barriers that exist only in your mind.
Faith isn’t something that must be present before you move in the direction of your dreams. Rather it’s something that develops after you start moving. When you start out, you don’t see how your dreams are possible. Nevertheless, the moment you take the first step, faith instantly comes into your life. Never look at faith as the path to a life of leisure. God gave you faith so you could see things other people can’t see and do things other people can’t do.
I could write an entire book called, "Things I Feared That Never Happened," and follow that up with a second book entitled, "I Feared The Wrong Things." Almost always, fear is a waste of time. Most of the things you fear will never happen, and you fear the wrong things. When the hobglobins of fear start dancing in your mind, it's time to refocus on other things. Learn how to squelch the voice of fear with a positive focus!
For me, the dream is all about adventure, freedom, and being really alive. Although I like seeing the sights wherever we go, I think it's the sense of adventure coupled with the freedom to do what I want to do with my life, seasoned with a pinch of adrenalin that makes it all worthwhile.
The first step in moving toward your dreams is to doubt your limits. Once you doubt your limits, it's almost as if you are born again. You get an entirely new life with radically different rules of engagement. You enter the Promised Land of Imagine, Believe, and Receive. I know this to be true because I have been there.
WHO IS DR. DAVE AND WHY IS HE BLOGGING?
More than two decades ago, Captain Dave (aka Dr. Dave) started writing and creating websites as he sailed around the world on his sailboat, SV Exit Only. Those early websites and books evolved into the Positive Thinking Network you see today.
Captain Dave lived overseas for twenty-eight years in his globe trotting lifestyle until he became a Flying Doctor with the Indian Health Service working for ten years in the American Southwest flying out to deliver health care to the Apache, Hopi, Hualapai, Havasupai, and Colorado River Tribes.
Dr. Dave completed his work with the Indian Health Service in Arizona, and now runs the Positive Thinking Network full time either from his catamaran or his Land Rover Defenders as he travels around the world
The Positive Thinking Network has a global outreach sending a positive message to 196 countries, and it is your definitive source of positive thinking on the World Wide Web.
With hundreds of positive websites, and more than a million pages and podcasts downloaded each month, it's where you come to learn everything you want to know about positive thinking. The Positive Thinking Network focuses on positive self-talk, positive spirituality, winning the battle against depression, PTSD, and positive adventure.
Hundreds of family safe websites stand ready to fill your mind with positive things.
Dr. Dave and the Positive Thinking Network work around the clock to change the world, one person at a time, one web page at a time, and one podcast at a time.
