March 28, 2024

Next on the tee:

As athletes and just as human beings we have a tendency to count ourselves out before we even start many times. We declare things to be impossible, as if there is no way that they can ever be achieved, though we know with perseverance and effort on our part they can be done. Although this may be the general tendency, there are times where we believe that we can achieve things and others around us tell us that there is no way that we can ever do them, they determine what is impossible for us without allowing us to determine what we can and will achieve for ourselves.

This archived article was written by: David Osborne Jr.

As athletes and just as human beings we have a tendency to count ourselves out before we even start many times. We declare things to be impossible, as if there is no way that they can ever be achieved, though we know with perseverance and effort on our part they can be done. Although this may be the general tendency, there are times where we believe that we can achieve things and others around us tell us that there is no way that we can ever do them, they determine what is impossible for us without allowing us to determine what we can and will achieve for ourselves.
Speaking from personal experience I know that many times I say that things are impossible before I even attempt them for the fear of failing. It is easier to say that something is un-achievable or impossible to do then even put forth the effort and try. Doing this is a pretty miserable way to live because you have thrown in the towel before the fight has even started.
For myself the thing that I find most impossible is the odds of me ever getting a hole-in-one in golf, I know it is something trivial but it is something that I have always wanted to achieve. According to a report done by Golf Digest (a magazine) said that the odds of an amateur of making a hole-in-one is somewhere around one in 12,750. To make this task seem even more unattainable my dad has never hit a hole-in-one and he has been playing for a long time, combine that with my grandfather never hitting one, and he started playing golf when they used wood to make the shafts for the clubs and people still wore knickers, metal spikes and ties when they played in tournaments. With these thoughts running through my head when I step up to the tee-box on a par-3 and stare down the flag I already know I am not going to make the shot so I have already made it impossible.
Muhammad Ali said, “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 is an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration, it’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” When it comes down to it really overcoming our opinion of impossible things seems to be what makes what we want to do impossible. When we are smart enough to remove ourselves and our opinion of what we can and cannot achieve impossible certainly becomes nothing more than another word in the English language that we have no use for.
Removing ourselves can be difficult but it is easier than removing what people around us say that we can and cannot achieve simply because we can control our thoughts. Life would probably be a whole lot easier if we could control the things that people around us believe we will and won’t be able to achieve and so they believe it is “impossible” for us. One time my mom got a fortune cookie that had an unusual fortune inside it. The fortune was, “The greatest joy in life comes from doing the things that people say cannot be done.” This simple statement is completely true and I can’t think of a much better feeling then knowing that I accomplished something that somebody else said I couldn’t.
“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’.” That was Audrey Hepburn’s philosophy and we should all take it to heart. Nothing is impossible to us as long as we try and put forth an effort, after all that is making the impossible that much more possible.