- Robert Schuller, American televangelist, pastor, speaker, motivator and author.

“The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible.”

-Anonymous

These two quotes when read in succession gives an idea that impossible is nothing. By reconditioning your mind to think in a positive manner, you can see impossible in the light of I M Possible.

Let us illustrate this with the help of an example, a real story that happened between the customer of General Motors and its Customer-Care Executive.

General Motors’ Pontiac Division received a customer complaint as follows:

This is the second time I am writing to you, and I don’t blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of Ice- Cream for dessert after dinner each night.

But the kind of ice cream varies every night. So, after we are done with our dinner, the family votes on which kind of ice cream to have. I drive down to the store to buy it.

It’s also a fact that I have recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem. You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice-cream, when I start back from the store, my car won’t start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know and I’m serious about this!

My question may sound silly but “What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get a vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?”

After reading the letter, the president at The Pontiac division was understandably skeptical about the complaint. Despite his disbelief, he still sent an engineer to look into the matter.

“In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.” - Miguel de Cervantes

When the engineer met the customer, he was surprised to see a well-educated man at the outset. He met him after the dinnertime so that he could accompany the customer to the ice cream store. That night was the vanilla ice cream night and as said in the letter, the car wouldn’t start after they bought it.

The engineer came back again for three subsequent nights to understand the issue. The first time they got chocolate ice cream and the car started. The second night it was strawberry and the car started again. The third night was vanilla and the car failed to start.

Being an engineer, the man believed in logic and couldn’t bring himself to believe that the car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. Therefore, he continued his visits with the man to the ice cream parlor as he was determined to solve the problem no matter how long it would take.

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” - Walt Disney

He started to make notes, of all sorts, the time of day, and type of gas used, time to drive back and forth etc. Very shortly, he got his clue. The engineer analyzed that the man took considerably less time to get the vanilla flavor as it was stored in the front of the store, being a popular pick. All other flavors were stored at the back of the store at a different counter and hence it took a relatively longer time to get those flavors.

Now, the engineer was surfaced with the question, why the car wouldn’t start when it took less time. Here it was, now time became the problem and not the vanilla ice cream. Soon enough, the engineer realized that the issue pertains to “vapor lock”.

The problem was happening each night however the extra time to get other flavors let the engine the needed space to cool down sufficiently to start. Since the vanilla ice cream was bought fast, the engine did not get the time to cool and the vapor lock did not dissipate.

See, how crazy looking problems are sometimes real and how all problems seem simple only when we find the solution with a cool thinking.

“To achieve the impossible; it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.”
– Tom Robbins, an American author

It is easy to say impossible but hard to put sincere efforts and make the task possible. It is your attitude and your perception that really matters.

“It is impossible to win the race unless you venture to run, impossible to win the victory unless you dare to battle.” Richard M. DeVos, co-author of the book Believe!

I listened to an interview with Marcia Wieder and she said something like, “Life is not meant to be just about addressing problems.” How often you might feel that your days are all about problems! Maybe thinking that way has become a habit.

Marcia’s statement brought my thoughts back several years, to a call with my Life Coach. He listened to me for a while and asked, “Have you ever noticed how many times you use the word ‘problem’?” He had me there, and I was glad he brought it to my attention. Someone in my life consistently says, “We have a problem.” I’d become so accustomed to hearing it that I didn’t even realize I was using the word so often (and experiencing all that goes with it).

What happens to your energy when you say or think, “I have a problem” or even “There’s a problem”? Do your thoughts immediately go to or open to possible solutions? Not really, huh? You focus on the fact there’s a problem or that a problem is perceived. How can you reframe this?

Here’s an example from my past. The due date for a monthly bill loomed. Expected funds hadn’t arrived. I reclaimed units of Truth and calmed myself. Unexpected funds came to me, which meant I could mail the check and have extra left over. Except… I verified the deposit had cleared and saw a lower online balance from my check register, caused by an annual automated charge. The company had always emailed a notice a few weeks early so I could plan for it. They hadn’t this time.

At first I was disappointed. Then I recognized how I’d been “looked after” from a higher level than physical reality. It was an Instant Reframe Moment, because I could have stayed in the mental-emotional place that believed I had less than I could have had, or life was unfair, or any number of negative perceptions. Instead, I chose to acknowledge I’d been “looked after” at that time, as I had before, and would be again.

Being in problem mode and in a negative perception state can become a bad habit, without you even realizing it. It can make you not only anticipate problems but also amplify severity of situations that arise—through your thoughts about them—beyond what they really represent or present. This can cause you to ignore what shows up to assist you or to not see what shows up for what it is.

A friend of mine had this habit mixed in with the perception that everything had to be “larger than life” to have real value. One Saturday we spoke on the phone about a “problem” she had. My intuition said to suggest she go to a metaphysical bookstore and let a book find her. She agreed to do this. We spoke a few hours later and she insisted she’d found nothing. My inner knowing said otherwise. She finally said, “I did find a book, but it’s just a small one.” I asked which one. “Life was never meant to be a struggle,” she answered. Oh boy. The physical book could fit inside a shirt pocket and not show. Her skewed perceptions about a “little” book caused her to miss the big message for her in the title, alone.

Our perceptions can cause us to wear blinders so that we look in only one direction, usually a negative or limiting one. A habit of labeling events and feelings according to these perceptions closes us off from seeing things differently.

Stuff happens—and for reasons we don’t always understand; but here are four questions to ask when you want to check whether your perceptions about events or situations are working for you:

• What else might be going on? (Negative perceptions limit “visibility”!)
• Is there any value to me at the inner or outer levels; and if not apparent now, what about in the future? (There’s always inner-level value; and hindsight often shows a “brilliance” orchestrated the events—if we allow ourselves to see this.)
• In what way does this event ask me to be creative? (This could be at the inner, outer, or both levels.)
• Do situations (or I) change quicker if I get tense or if I allow serenity in? (You know this one is a no-brainer. If you’re a prickly cactus energy-wise, nothing comes close to you. Smooth your “surface,” and whatever IT is gives you a big hug.)

If your perception about a “problem” is that it’s an opportunity to be creative, or to learn and grow, is it still a problem of the same magnitude? If you reframe it this way, does it still have the same emotional charge for you?

Marcia asked listeners to consider what their relationship is with their personal power. You are an infinite soul, a creative consciousness engaging a physical experience; not just a problem solver or someone who just has problems. Practice being a creative and a creative solver; and use your reframing skills to allow you to experience events from a more positive or productive perspective. There are likely some matters in your life right now you could apply this approach to. Maybe start with some of the simpler ones.

Dustin Hoffman, as Mr. Magorium, in Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, says to his assistant: “Life is an occasion. Rise to it.” That’s what “problems” are, actually: Occasions we have the opportunity to rise to, whatever that means for us as individuals, and in ways appropriate and authentic for us (not based on the opinions of others).

Will you choose to rise to or through your personal power or sink into negative thinking today?

Practice makes progress.

- Joyce Shafer