“It always seems impossible…”

Nelson Mandela said, “It always seems impossible until it's done.” 25 years ago, tonight, it seemed impossible that I would live. A steel beam fell on my head and crushed a fair amount of my skull. My brain was bleeding out. I had a “less than 25% chance of survival.” What does that statistic mean? Well… even if a person does survive, the odds of a patient living for more than a year are not very good. Of course, there are always issues with quality of life. So, sure, it makes sense to think winning a billion dollar lottery game, with one ticket, seems pretty good, by comparison.

How about you? Have you ever been told that something couldn’t be done, but you wanted to do it anyway? Some kids have always wanted to pursue a career as a creative professional, but family members, or maybe even a high school counselor, said the chances of succeeding were not very good. (My high school guidance counselor told me that I “wasn’t college material.” It was a triumph to leave a copy of my Deans List certificate on her desk, after my first college semester.)

As some of you know, 9-½ years after my cerebral trauma, Janet had a Brain Aneurysm and also had a less than 25% chance of survival. Her come-back therapies became my come-back therapies.

What seems impossible for you to do, right now? We meet accomplished still photographers who feel shooting motion footage is too scary, even if the camera they shoot with does 4K Ultra HD video recording. Then, there are the brilliant print designers who are Adobe InDesign masters but they’re not feeling up for exploring web/mobile design with Adobe Dreamweaver, even though both apps are included in their Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.

As Mandela is encouraging us to do, get the impossible done.