At the beginning of the UnthinkableBook project, I was in awe of the many achievers I encountered, and their extraordinary accomplishments.
However, I soon realized that while Dave Scott and Adam Kreek and Deno Hewson were achieving the unthinkable by winning iron man competitions, or winning Olympic medals, or climbing mountains, others like Hisham Mohammed, a quadriplegic from Iraq was completing his bachelor’s degree from Penn State University. Was that not equally unthinkable, or even more unthinkable?
Over the course of my project, the more I learned from my interviews and research, the more my definition of what is unthinkable had changed.
During high school, I ran cross country, and the races were 5k. And it’s not a distance race, like the ten kilometer road race, or the marathon. The 5k meter race requires a combination of speed and endurance.
My coach told me to start as fast as you can he responded, ‘Just start out as fast as you can, and gradually run faster.’
Ironically, that became my new definition of unthinkable… ‘Be the best you can be, and gradually get better.’
The essence of unthinkable boiled down to three things… Find your purpose. Be the best you can be at it. And, gradually get better. ‘Learn something new every day!’
