MOVING FROM IMPOSSIBLE TO POSSIBLE

Many of the limits we experience in life are not always imposed by reality itself, but by the way we define what is possible. When we believe something cannot be done, we often stop searching for solutions before we even begin.

Yet history offers many examples showing that what once seemed impossible can become achievable when someone approaches a challenge with openness and persistence.

I came across this powerful true story and wanted to share it with you.

I came across this powerful true story and wanted to share it with you…

Story 

George Danzig was a grad student in mathematics at a time when jobs were very, very difficult to get in the United States.

His math professor, who was the head of the mathematics department, said to the grad students that whoever got the best grade on the final had the opportunity to be hired as his research assistant for the next year.

That job was a plum job. Everybody wanted the job. George said that he studied so hard for that test that he was up until the middle of the night and overslept and was actually late to the test.

But he got there in time to take the test, was handed the test and went to the back of the room. As he was answering the eight math questions, he got through the eight math questions fairly easily. When he looked on the blackboard and there were two problems on the board. He copied them down and he began to work on those two problems and he couldn’t solve them.

He began to think that somebody in this room is going to solve these problems. What’s wrong with me? He kept working and working and working on the problems. He couldn’t get them solved and by the end of the time that was allowed some of the students asked for additional time to work.

The professor said they could take the test home and bring it back by Friday. So George, too, asked for more time. He was told to bring the test back by Friday.

George went home and sat up night after night. This was Monday. All day Tuesday. Tuesday night. Wednesday and Wednesday night.

He just kept thinking somebody is going to get these solved. Why not me? Why not me? Finally, by Thursday morning he had one of them solved. Then he kept working, working, working late into Thursday night and on Friday morning he solved the second one.

He took the test back and got it turned in by eleven a.m., which was the deadline. He went home wondering what would happen. Sunday morning at seven am there was a knock, knock, knock at his door.

He jumps out of bed. It’s his professor. His professor says “George, you’ve made mathematical history! I was thinking on the way over here, you were late to the test right?”

George said, “Well yeah, did I do something wrong?”

“No,” the professor said, “It’s just that the eight questions were the test. I told everybody who was gathered. I’ve had such a great time teaching all of you. If you want to have fun for the rest of your life, these two questions are the two unsolved math questions that even Einstein himself went to his grave unable to solve. How did you do this George?”

George recounted that if he had heard ahead of time that no one has been able to solve those problems, his way of defining his relationship to that problem would have been so different that he would not have made himself available to the access to the solution that was within him.

The Teaching

This story illustrates an important principle about how we approach what seems impossible. Very often, what limits us is not our capability — but our assumptions.

George Danzig approached the problems without the belief that they were unsolvable. Because he did not know they were considered impossible, he simply engaged with them as problems that required patience, focus, and persistence. And that made all the difference.

 

Factor One: The Power of Perspective

The way we define a challenge determines how we engage with it. If we believe something is impossible, our mind tends to close down before we even begin. But when we approach a situation with openness and curiosity, new possibilities can emerge. Many breakthroughs begin with someone who is simply willing to ask: “Why not me?”

Possibility often expands when we stop assuming that limitations are permanent.

 

Factor Two: Persistence and Openness

George did not solve the problems immediately. He worked on them for days, continuing even when the answers were not obvious. This persistence is an important part of turning the impossible into the possible. When we remain engaged with a challenge — thinking about it, exploring it, staying open to insight — our minds often find connections that were not visible at first. Solutions rarely appear when we give up quickly. They often appear when we stay present long enough for new understanding to emerge.

The deeper lesson of this story is simple: What appears impossible today may simply be something that has not yet been solved. When you remain open, curious, and committed, you make yourself available to possibilities that others may overlook.  The question is not whether challenges will appear in life. The question is how you will define your relationship with them. Will you assume something cannot be done? Or will you stay open long enough to discover what might be possible?