When it comes to planning for the future or having dreams, I have found that there are usually two types of obstacles we see in front of us.

The Doable Obstacles

The first type of obstacles are “doable” obstacles that may require effort and energy from us, but our internal assumptions about them are that we could overcome them if we really wanted to.

For example, let’s say that you are a Blogger and a mentor you’re working with tells you that you need to be writing an average of one Blog post per day in order for your Blog to take off.  Let’s say that currently you are writing two Blog posts per week.  Well, going from two per week to seven per week may require energy and effort, but it’s probably not an obstacle that would stop you dead in your tracks.

If you truly believed that you could have what you want by writing those seven articles per week, you would do it, because it’s not a very difficult obstacle to overcome.  You’d probably feel like it’s 100% within your control.

Another example could be starting a savings program where you put away 10% of your income each month.  It may require effort, it may require energy and changes to your lifestyle but it’s probably one of those obstacles that you could overcome if you really had to and really wanted to.

Whenever you sit down and dream about your future, and plans start to emerge on how you can achieve that future, your plan will usually involve a whole bunch of these “doable” obstacles.  Things you’ve either done before, or deep down know you could do if you really wanted to.

The Impossible Obstacles

The second type of obstacles are “impossible” obstacles that your mind has decided are not within the realm of its power to overcome – often without you really even realizing it.

For example, let’s say that the mentor from the first example above told you that one of the steps you need to take to get your Blog growing is to contact 5 multi-millionaires and arrange for an interview that you will put on your Blog.

This of course could be just one step in a series of twenty or thirty steps, but for whatever reason your mind declares this step as “impossible” – often without you really even realizing.

So let’s say that your mentor gives you these steps to follow to grow your Blog:

1. Install a new custom made WordPress theme on your Blog.
2. Re-arrange your categories in a specific way.
3. Write an average of one Blog post per day.
4. Contact 5 multi-millionaires and arrange for an interview that you will put on your Blog.
5. Install AdSense on your Blog.
6. etc.

Usually without you even realizing, your mind quickly scans through the list and labels each step as either “Doable if I really wanted to do it” or “Impossible”.

For the sake of this example, let’s say that your mind labels 1,2 and 3 as “doable”, 4 as “impossible”, and 5 as “doable”.

Here’s what usually happens next.  Unless step #1 is super easy, we’ll usually procrastinate and avoid doing it even though we know it’s totally doable.  Why?  Because most of the time our minds will not want to make an effort in a direction or with a plan where there is an “impossible” step involved prior to completion.

You mind basically says “Well, we can’t do step #4 because it’s impossible, so why even start at all?” and so you procrastinate.  You spin your wheels, trying to find a custom made WordPress theme for you Blog but for some reason you just can’t get yourself to do it.

You sit there wondering what’s wrong with you, since that step is so simple yet you can’t seem to find the time or energy to even get started.

The reason you’re procrastinating is because your mind is trying to avoid facing step #4, not #1-3.  It knows it can do the first three steps if it really wanted to, but if there is an “impossible” obstacle along the way, then why even bother?

Are Impossible Obstacles Really Impossible?

The obstacles your mind labels as “impossible” are not really impossible.  They may seem impossible to your mind, but they are far from impossible.  In fact, for a lot of people out there in the world, the exact same obstacle is probably labeled as “doable” in their minds – usually because they’ve done it before, or because they don’t have any limiting beliefs that make the obstacle seem more difficult than it already is.

For example, one person may label something like qualifying for a mortgage as “impossible” while another person may label the exact same step as “doable” even though they could have the exact same income and the exact same credit rating.

For whatever reason, usually based on our beliefs and social conditioning, we all have internal blocks and labels on things and we all label things differently in our minds.

What if Impossible Obstacles Were Really Possible?

Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of goal setting, planning and visualizing my future.  As part of the process certain plans have begun to emerge on how to accomplish my goals.  At first, without realizing it, my mind had labeled some of the steps within those plans as “impossible”.

However, over the last couple of weeks I have also had a few incidents happen where things that seemed very improbable or even impossible to my mind manifested in front of me with complete ease.  These weren’t huge things, and some people out there I’m sure would label these things as completely “doable”, but for my mind they seemed very difficult and then they manifested in my life with complete ease.

These events had a very interesting effect on me.

They made me question two things:

1. What else is my mind labeling as “impossible” without me even realizing?
2. What if anything at all was possible?

Have you ever asked yourself these questions?

They can be very powerful.  I’ve been asking myself these questions over and over again over the last couple of weeks – especially the second question.

What if anything was possible – what would you do with your life?

Who would you want to be?

What would you want to do?

If asking yourself that question seems impractical because you know that anything is not possible, you could start by asking yourself something along the lines of “If the things that I label as difficult were actually easy, what would I do with my life?”

The idea here is to try to “relax” your convictions as to what your mind labels as “doable” vs what it labels as “impossible”.

By “impossible” I mean stuff that your mind believes is not within your control.  For example, let’s say that your dream is to start a video game company that develops a certain type of video game.

However, part of your plan requires that you have a million dollars to start the company, and your mind labels that as “impossible”, because you don’t have a million dollars, and you don’t know anyone who would be willing to give you a million dollars, so your mind thinks “Well, unless we win the lottery, which is impossible anyways, there’s no point chasing this dream because we don’t have a million dollars.”

That’s the kind of stuff I’m talking about.

What if it was possible for you to have a million dollars, what kind of video game company would you start?  How would it work? What kind of games would you develop?  How would you be different from the other game companies? etc.

If you sit down and spend some time dreaming a little bit, based on the assumption that any of these seemingly “impossible” steps in your plans are actually possible, what would you want to do with your life?

Even just becoming aware of what your mind labels as “impossible” or even “extremely difficult” can be a very liberating experience.  Sometimes just by becoming aware of that you realize that some of those things on your list aren’t really that difficult and surely aren’t impossible.

So, if anything at all was possible, what would you do with your life?