Impossible is nothing

It occurred to me today how often we say "I can't", "it's too hard", it's impossible" and so on, ruling certain things out even before we tried. In reality, I am sure that we are all capable of so much more than we think and than we give ourselves credit for. In fact, I will go as far as to say that most people don't ever measure up to their potential and never really challenge themselves enough to find out how much they are capable of.

I do understand that some people are just simply content and do not feel the need to do more and go above and beyond and to set new goals and new challenges. Maybe it's just that I am never really content for very long, I don't know how to just sit on my butt. A friend of mine I saw last night asked me what I had done all day, and so I listed all the things: I woke up and unpacked, cleaned a little bit, went for a run (yes, I ran and it was great and I can still walk today!) then I went to the lab for a little bit to check on cells in the incubator, then met 2 friends for brunch, went to run errands and grocery shopping, I even made it to the nearby farmer's market, then got ready to go out and met my friend for dinner around 8 in Forest Hills. The only time I sat down during this time was for brunch and on the subway on route to Queens. During the latter I was reading the incredible book, which deserves its own blog entry. I asked what he had done and he said: absolutely nothing, and it was great. I told him it sounded like a nightmare to me. I really don't know how to sit on my butt and do nothing, and if I ever do - usually on days when I am sick or hungover and am unable to actually move - I feel guilty for being lazy and get really bored after half a day.

My point being: I am the kind of person who needs to do something all the time and needs new challenges and goals to fulfill in order to feel good and happy I guess. Now I realize that what a week ago seemed like an insurmountable challenge - that is, substituting for my adviser and giving his lecture at the conference in Lisbon - was in reality, an amazing opportunity, not so much in the sense that it created an opportunity to make connections that might be super useful in my scientific career in the future, but more so in the sense that by having accomplished this challenge, I feel more confident than ever. Something like what I felt after the marathon. I was able to stand in front of a few hundred people and give a mostly comprehensive talk about the research project I am involved with in my lab and people were impressed. I don't think they expected much from a young graduate student; I also must have looked absolutely terrified in the days and hours leading up to the talk, accurately reflecting how I felt.

I have to admit that once I realized how nice people at the conference were, thinks have become much less scary. The 2 scientists chairing the session I appeared in were 2 of the nicest and funniest people I have met in some time. They introduced me to the other speakers and assured me that all was gonna be fine and one of them commented on how grateful he was that he didn't have to sit through yet another lecture by an "ugly old man" (not referring to my adviser, whom he had never met). Things also would have been very different if it wasn't for the kindness and selflessness of another professor from my school and her husband, also a scientist, who spent countless hours listening to me practicing my talk and thinking of ways to improve it. Where my own mentor failed, they made up for it and did more! All in all, it was a great experience for me in realizing that that were people out there who really cared and understood the meaning of the word "mentor" and also in realizing that if I work hard, I can really do things that I hadn't thought possible before. As the Adidas commercial says, impossible is nothing - the poster used to be up on the wall in our fencing locker room in college. As applicable in every aspect of life as in athletics. We should really remind ourselves every day and make sure that we accept big and small challenges that life throws our way. The high I experience after accomplishing something big is what happiness really is I think.