Hi everyone!
Welcome to the Life List Clubs bi-weekly blog fest. If you aren’t familiar with the Life List Club you can find out about it on the tab up on my header (or click the link). Today, I am guest posting over at Lyn Midnight’s site (aka Violeta Nedkova) on Goals & Gremlins.
I am pleased to have the fantastically upbeat and talented Jennie Bennett guest posting here today. Jennie’s website, A Book, A Girl, A Journey is a fun combination of writing, books and life. Welcome Jennie! Take it away.
Nothing is Impossible
The other day a friend of mine on Facebook said “Every time someone says nothing is impossible I think about stapling pudding to a tree.”
At first I laughed. The mental image of chocolately brown goodness sliding down bark while someone is working furiously to keep it in place, would make anyone smile. The only thing is, that night, the comment didn’t sit well with me.
I was really struggling with my work in progress. I was feeling as if it was impossible to succeed. It was one of those moments where you get caught up in the figures and lose sight of why you even sat down to write in the first place.
If I believed in my friends statement, I would be yielding to the belief that there are things you cannot accomplish.
That’s when it donned on me, you can’t staple pudding to a tree, but you could put that pudding in a bag, and that bag will hold just fine to any trunk.
My response came easy then, “Anything is possible when you look for the right solution.”
When it comes to goals, maybe we shouldn’t say things like “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go to Harry Potter world in Florida” Which is, admittedly, something on my life list. Instead we should maybe say, do I really need that, or do I want to go to Harry Potter world?
Let’s take another example, one that’s applicable to writing. “I don’t think I have time to edit more than 10 pages a day.” What could be a solution to this? How about “Instead of sleeping, I think I’ll edit 100 pages a day”
Okay, so that’s a little extreme, but the point is, sometimes we have to sacrifice for our goals. If we really want to achieve something, the solution is within our grasp.
Jennie Bennett is a stay-at-home mom of two kids and the author of the blog, A Book, A Girl, A Journey, which features posts about writing and musing on life.
Her current work in progress is a YA fantasy about a girl with special gifts who is trying to save her world from the hierarchical society that rules it.
You can find Jennie on Twitter here and Facebook here
Thanks Jennie!
I encourage you to comment and let us know what you think before heading over to see my guest post on Violeta’s blog. There are twelve of us traveling around today and we’d love to have you join us. Just follow the link trail from site to site or use my Life List Club blog roll on the side column.
Peaceful Journeys!
Gene Lempp ~ Writer 
I’m an adept of “Nothing is impossible and everything is relative”, which is a physicist’s view. However, that is philosophy, in theory. Practice makes it hard.
On the other hand, Odysseas (Ulisse) by Homer showed that the journey of 20 years was worth it, not the destination. For us, the readers, maybe for Odysseas too, but I don’t think it was the same for Penelope. 😀
From those, the lesson is to try to do or achieve something we target. If it doesn’t work, then at least there is the reward of trying. But if we don’t try, we won’t ever know the outcome and then the blame is all ours.
Interesting topic 🙂
Thank you Jennie for sharing and thanks Gene for hosting
Irene: Great principle to live by. I doubt Penelope was pleased but sometimes we have to sacrifice for the ones we love as well. If people would have stopped distracting Odyseus he would have made it home much faster.
Ellie: Thanks 🙂
Shea: Great attitude! You are right on target, everything is possible as long as we take the effort to find good solutions and make them work.
I looove this post! It’s funny and sweet and upbeat!
What a wonderfully encouraging post.
I have a lovely friend who is in the habit of reminding me of this several times a day: NOTHING is impossible.
And she’s right. Nothing is. Sometimes it takes some creative thinking, but in the end EVERYTHING is possible. I’m making it possible. 🙂
It’s great! I love the visual, Jen. Now I’ll be picturing the same when I set my goals. Better get those bags at the ready, I wouldn’t want any pudding leakage, lol.
I keep picturing a child trying desperately to push the pudding up the side of a tree to the amusement of the squirrels. Thanks for the comment Violeta 🙂
Thank you guys! I’m loving Gene’s blog. I should come hang out here more often 🙂
@Irene – Your statement “if it doesn’t work, then at least there is the reward of trying.” is true as well, even if we didn’t achieve our goal, we learned from our mistakes. Thanks for pointing that out 🙂
@ellie – Thank you!
@Shea – I mostly write things like this to keep myself in good spirits, otherwise I’ll let the little devil on my shoulder win 😛
@Violeta – Make sure your bag is water-proof and you won’t have any issues, lol 🙂
It’s great having you here today Jennie and the door is always open if you want to guest post in the future. My readers are the best peeps on the blogsphere 🙂
Great post, Jennie, I loved the quote from your friend. I will definitely remember that when I start putzing with story again which has me stumped and feeling like it’s impossible. Thanks for some encouragement!
As for you, Gene, my snarky comment is over at Violeta’s blog. See you there or be square.
I love this post!! LOL the pudding comment made me laugh too, but I loved your solution. You’re so right. It may not be EASY to achieve our goals, but it isn’t impossible.
Great post, Jennie! Some people get in the habit of making excuses for not doing the things they need to do. Looking for alternative ways to get a job done or achieve a goal is a positve action that can keep you going til it’s accomplished.
Great inspiration! I’m so glad I found this life list thing… have to check it out some more. I loved the putting the pudding in the bag example!
Great guest post, Jeannie! Thank you for hosting her, Gene – and for participating in the blog hop series. This is great inspiration & so very true! Nothing is impossible. You just have to make it happen….
Jess: Haven’t seen it yet, may be waiting approval, but when I do… 😀
Lisa, Marcia, Tiffany and Margo: Great to see all of you!
@jess It’s amazing how sometimes examples like this stick with us, it’s a great visual to keep us all going.
@Lisa So true, sometimes it takes a lot of ingenuity!
@Marcia wise, wise words
@Margo We’re glad you found us too! 🙂
Great post! Coming up with creative solutions to the obstacles in our path makes the goal-journey a lot more fun, too : )!
Love this post! Now I’ll always picture trying to staple pudding to a tree when I hear that saying too. Good luck with your novel!
Fantastic post, Gene and Jennie!
I’ve got to find out more about this #LifeList business….
Since I happen to have that handy anti-gravity device, stapling that pudding to the tree will be no problem…Wait a minute…where’s my anti-grav device? What…I left it in the pocket of my jeans? Oh sure, now hubby decides to do some laundry. Oh well, guess I’ll have to get creative too. 😀
Great post! I have moments where I want to hurl my MIP across the planet. I have to try an look at it from a different angle then.
A few things
First off, I love this post. Thanks for a very inspirational blog.
Second, how about freezing the pudding and then nailing it to the tree….oh, it would shatter…freeze it, drill a hole slightly larger than the nail through the frozen pudding, and then nail it to the tree….it will melt…do above, cut down the tree, and put it in a freezer…what if you have an outage and your freezer warms up….do above, but take it to Antarctica. You just have to keep trying to figure out a way.
Finally, one of the best examples of limited thinking, even by those who supposedly aren’t limited, was in a book by Tony Robbins, when he was talking about goals. In it, he specifically said that you should have great goals, but not impossible goals like, “winning an NBA slam dunk competition if you’re under 6′ tall.” Then this happened in 1986. http://www.spudwebb.net/ check out the video of 5′-7″ Spud Webb taking Dominique Wilkins to school at the NBA slam dunk competition that year. Sometimes the impossible is possible.
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