If you want possibility thinking to work for you, then begin by following these suggestions:
Stop focusing on the impossibilities: Sports psychologist Bob Rotella recounts, “I tell people: If you don’t want to get into positive thinking, that’s OK. Just eliminate all the negative thoughts from your mind, and whatever’s left will be fine.”
Stay away from the “experts”: So-called experts do more to shoot down people’s dreams than just about anybody else. Rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun said, “I have learned to use the word impossible with the greatest of caution.” And Napoleon Bonaparte declared, “The word impossible is not in my dictionary.” John Andre Holmes, who asserted, “Never tell a young person that something cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for somebody ignorant enough of the impossible to do that thing.”
Look for possibilities in every situation: Becoming a possibility thinker is more than just refusing to let yourself be negative. It’s something more. It’s looking for positive possibilities despite the circumstances.
Dream one size bigger: One of the best ways to cultivate a possibility mind-set is to prompt yourself to dream one size bigger than you normally do. Let’s face it: most people dream too small. They don’t think big enough. Henry Curtis advises, “Make your plans as fantastic as you like, because twenty-five years from now they will seem mediocre. Make your plans ten times as great as you first planned, and twenty-five years from now you will wonder why you did not make them fifty times as great.”
Question the status quo: Most people want their lives to keep improving, yet they value peace and stability at the same time. People often forget that you can’t improve and still stay the same. Growth means change. Change requires challenging the status quo.
Find inspiration from great achievers: Look for people with the attitude of Robert F. Kennedy, who popularized George Bernard Shaw’s stirring statement: “some men see things as they are and say, ‘Why?’ I dream of things that never were and say, ‘Why not?’”
