How to Accomplish the Seemingly Impossible

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I went through a few possible titles for this post: how to do something you’ve never done before, how I landed my first internship ever (which seriously sparked so much after), or how to make that big thing happen that you don’t have a plan for. Through all of those potentials, I managed to settle on the one that brought you here.

Because when I think about the accomplishments that I’m most proud of, almost all of them seemed impossible to me at one point or another. And I’m sure that there are some goals that you have written down, or maybe one’s that you haven’t had the courage to write out yet, that seem like they just aren’t going to happen.

When I first started college, I was probably the most hyper-motivated freshman to ever hit this campus. I wanted to do everything, join everything and be as prepared as I possibly could to take on the world. Once my freshman year was over, I knew that I wanted to take on an internship. Partly because I was dying for more hands-on experience in my major, and partly because I refused to back for another Summer at my old high school job working at a soft pretzel store.

There were only a few problems with landing this internship

1. I was only 19 years old and not living in the city on my own full-time.

2. I’d only gotten 2 semesters under my belt and had a long way to go in my courses.

3. I’d never had an internship before and didn’t really know where to start. (My resume at the time could be best described as “cute”)

4. Everyone else going out for these internships were older upperclassman who had taken more classes or held internships before.

So the odds were pretty stacked against me, and I’m sure somewhere inside there was a huge pit of self-doubt telling me it wasn’t going to happen. Luckily, the drive in my heart telling me to go for it spoke a little louder. So I did.

I reached out to an amazing group of mentors, a fabulous group of seniors who were basically my fairy god mothers and biggest fans, and they helped me every step of the way. I sent out cover letters and my cute little resume, each time hoping something would come back a hit.

And you know what, it did! Not once, but twice!

That Summer I ended up working with two internships! Not only did I meet my goal, I exceeded it, beyond even my wildest dreams. I worked my butt off at both of those internships, and now they each seem so far away the longer the experience list on my resume (which is no longer cute, just really legit) grows longer and longer.

The moral of the story is that the seemingly impossible is really just a really big obstacle that you are more than able to overcome. 

It takes an awesome group of supporters behind you, to back you up and provide a litter guidance. Next, some motivation –put the self-doubt on mute and just do the things that will lead you to that impossible goal. Write the resume, draft the blog post, talk to your publisher friend about the book. One by one, step by step you’ll be slowing reaching what you thought was unreachable.

What are some of your seemingly impossible goals? Feel free to share them in the comments or shoot me an email, I’d love to chat about them more with you!