The Impossible Happens Every Day
Why Not With You?
Do you realize that many things we do today, were once considered impossible? We get so used to them it is easy to forget that fact.
Part of great accomplishment is great dreaming
Part of great dreaming is to stretch our minds and think in terms of what should and could be; not what already is.
The problem is we all face internal and external voices that tell us the dream is impossible.
Maybe it is not possible yet; but that does not mean it will not be possible in the future.
Here are a few quotes from the past, given by intelligent and sincere experts regarding what would and would not be possible. Though they seem stupid and ridiculous today, at the time, these statements were highly regarded by many.
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
Charles H. Duell, an official at the US patent office, 1899.
“The ordinary “horseless carriage” is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into as common use as the bicycle.”
Literary Digest, 1899.
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal Society, 1895.
“Lee DeForest has said in many newspapers and over his signature that it would be possible to transmit the human voice across the Atlantic before many years. Based on these absurd and deliberately misleading statements, the misguided public … has been persuaded to purchase stock in his company …”
From a U.S. District Attorney, prosecuting American inventor Lee DeForest for selling stock fraudulently through the mail for his Radio Telephone Company in 1913
“Space travel is bunk.”
Sir Harold Spencer Jones, Astronomer Royal of the UK, 1957 (two weeks later Sputnik orbited the Earth).
“Dear Mr. President: The canal system of this country is being threatened by a new form of transportation known as ‘railroads’ … As you may well know, Mr. President, ‘railroad’ carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by ‘engines’ which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed.”
Martin Van Buren, Governor of New York, 1830.
“What, sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray you, excuse me, I have not the time to listen to such nonsense.”
Napoleon Bonaparte, when told of Robert Fulton’s steamboat, 1800s.
These Were All Highly Esteemed EXPERTS
Every one of these quotes is by people of great influence and expertise in their time. Obviously they were wrong. Not just a little wrong, but Grand Canyon size wrong.
Yes, we should get input from others on where we should be investing our time and energy; but at the beginning phase of dreaming only listen to people who are encouraging you to stretch, hope, imagine, and live. There is plenty of time to filter out the ideas that are not right for you.
Go ahead. Let your mind and heart get big. What is impossible right now that if became possible would change your world or our world?
Dream Big First, Sort Later
The Bible says that God gives dreams and visions to all believers through the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:17–19)
God has put inside us the ability to see things before they are created. A designer sees that jacket in her mind before she puts it on paper and then onto cloth. An artist sees the painting and then paints what they see. An architect sees the building, then puts on paper or on the computer what they see in their mind….then builders take materials and turn what once existed only in the mind into physical reality.
Please, shake off the disappointments of the past. Let God breath fresh vision and dreams into you heart and mind.
Dreams are the starting point of great work and great achievement.
Dream.
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