Optimism: The Impossible

A “can-do” song from my all time inspirational favorites list is another Country Western track called Impossible. Released in 2002 by Joe Nichols, the song climbed into the top 40 of the Country charts.

The song provides several vignettes of Nichols' own journey of optimism. He recounts a few watershed events in his life that helped him see that impossible things do happen.

His current crisis is a failing relationship, but he has gathered personal evidence that even when others are saying, “It’s over.” It’s not.



My favorite line is…

'Cos there's no such thing as hopeless
If you believe:

In life and in sports I’ve staged many come-from-behind victories that others thought were impossible.

When I began my career as a Special Educator, I had one old-timer tell me, “Don, nobody gets out of Special Education at the Junior High level. The ones that could, already have.”

It took me several years to find out she was wrong. What made the difference for the kids? They hadn’t met me, yet.

My wife calls me “delusionally optimistic.” That optimism helps me help students whom others may label hopeless. But…

… there’s no such thing as hopeless if you believe.

I'm also a realist. I know that sometimes the walls and obstacles win, but not until I’ve given it my best to the very end. And when impossible really is impossible, I have the quiet assurance that comes from knowing that I didn’t give up. Sometimes I don't win, but I prolong the battle.

(A basic tenet of game theory is, The longer you stay in the game, the better your chances of winning. Or put more bluntly, Winners never quit, and quitters never win.)

Have you, like Nichols, chronicled the “impossible” things that turned out to be possible after all? If you have that personal history, you can use it as motivation when the next seemingly impossible thing arises on your horizon.




You can view the music video here.

You can read the lyrics below:

Impossible

My dad chased monsters from the dark
He checked underneath my bed
He could lift me with one arm
Way up over top his head
He could loosen rusty bolts
With a quick turn of his wrench
He pulled splinters from his hand
Never even flinched
In thirteen years I'd never seen him cry
But the day that grandpa died, I realized

Unsinkable ships, sink
Unbreakable walls, break
Sometimes the things you think would never happen
Happens just like that
Unbendable steel, bends
If the fury of the wind is unstoppable
I've learned to never underestimate
The impossible

And then there was my junior year
Billy had a brand new car
It was late, the road was wet
I guess the curves was just too sharp
I walked away without a scratch
They brought the helicopter in
And Billy couldn't feel his legs
Said he'd never walk again
But Billy said he would and his mom and daddy prayed
And the day we graduated, he stood up to say:

Unsinkable ships, sink
Unbreakable walls, break
Sometimes the things you think would never happen
Happens just like that
Unbendable steel, bends
If the fury of the wind is unstoppable
I've learned to never underestimate
The impossible

So don't tell me that it's over
Don't give up on you and me
'Cos there's no such thing as hopeless
If you believe:

Unsinkable ships, sink
Unbreakable walls, break
Sometimes the things you think would never happen
Happens just like that
Unbendable steel, bends
If the fury of the wind is unstoppable
I've learned to never underestimate
The impossible