Permission to Succeed

Keeping with the title and ideas of this blog - Dwell In Possibility - I love finding stories of those who endeavor to do that very thing.

I was encouraged to read today that South African Olympic hopeful Oscar Pistorius will be allowed the opportunity to try and qualify for the Beijing Olympics.  Read that again… he was just fighting for a chance that may not even come to fruition.  He has to qualify and might not make the time necessary.  But he really wanted the opportunity that was, up until today, being denied.  I’m proud of him for going for it and regardless of the outcome, he is pursuing his dream and living squarely in the middle of possible.

How many times do we give up when we’re told “No”, or “It can’t be done”? Maybe too often we look for someone’s permission to take chances or try something daring, when we should just go for it, despite the nay-sayers.

There’s a lot said about those who play the devil’s advocate in the 10 Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley of IDEO.  And the book describes different personas you can assume to get around the “can’t-be-done” attitudes and move into the “let’s at least try” mindset.

So, what’s keeping you from “dwelling in possibility”? (a poem by Emily Dickenson)

Do you really need permission from anyone but yourself to try?  To fail?  To succeed?

Just a little encouragement from me to you: Try really hard - at all costs even - to live there… in possibility. You have my permission to succeed. (even though you don’t really need it)