Possibilites

In All Stitched Up! issue #291 we unpacked the idea that progress is often made when we put small things on repeat. If we’re able to break larger tasks down into smaller increments and tackle them repeatedly, even if it’s just for 15 minutes at a time, we will eventually achieve what we set out to accomplish. Even those things we once thought impossible.

Since penning those words, achieving the impossible must have been front of mind as we noticed the theme emerge in a couple of surprising places.

Whilst referring to a difficult situation a character from a ‘slice of life’ TV series, which in part is set in the 1960’s, took inspiration from man’s first walk on the moon as he reminded his brother that as they spoke there was actually someone walking on the moon and that which seemed impossible just yesterday was now in fact possible. 

‘Start Your Impossible’ is an advertising campaign from Toyota. Their current iteration follows the journeys of several athletes and what they’ve overcome to find themselves ready to compete in the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The common lessons learnt throughout each of the athletes’ journeys are that if you’re able to imagine just how far you can go and are willing to take the first step required and then take another (and another and . . . ), before you know it, you’ll find yourself where you once only imagined. The campaign closed with a simple, but powerful truth:

What is your ‘impossible’ with needle and thread?

You may not feel qualified to begin or have a continuous length of time to devote to it, but if you’re brave enough to take the first step and tackle the subsequent steps in 15-minute increments, you might just find yourself on the way to achieving that which you never thought possible. 

We’ve always been taught that practice makes perfect, but maybe practice simply makes possible.