Know the biggest barrier to achieving what's possible?

It's being aware of what's probable.

If any event could demonstrate this to all of us, it would be what happened at the Kentucky Derby last week.  Rich Strike, the most improbable horse to win actually beat all the odds, the experts, the evidence.  And won. 

When Rich Strike's owner was interviewed afterwards he said, ‘I’ve never believed life puts a cap on what you can do.”

Its true.

Life doesn’t put a cap on what we can do.

But we often do.

We mostly do it unconsciously, by being aware of what's probable in a given situation and limiting our thoughts, feelings, words and behaviour to that range.

We have good reasons for this.

We know what it's like to get our hopes up only to have them dashed. We don't want to waste our time, enthusiasm or money. And we really don't like to look foolish. So limiting ourselves to what's probable yields a safer, more predictable life.

But this week, if you're feeling more daring than usual, you could take a page from Rich Strike's playbook and stretch yourself.

To try this, choose an area of your life where you know what's probable. 

Acknowledge that  there ARE other appealing, exciting and less-probable possibilities. You just haven't been giving them any airtime.

If you're the type who likes reminders, make yourself a sign, like mine.  (Bet your hand-writing will be easier to read!)

And throughout the week, when you think about this subject, notice where your thoughts, feelings and actions have reduced down to only what's probable.

When you spot that, use the following questions to practice opening yourself again to the other possibilities:

• What would change in the way I'm thinking about this subject if I allowed myself to think about possibilities I prefer?
• What feelings would I experience if I truly considered that what is possible IS actually possible?
• What actions would I take if I knew what's possible IS actually possible? 

If you give this little experiment a whirl, I interested.  Join my online learning community or drop me an email with ITS POSSIBLE in the subject line.

Here's a 2-minue video clip of the win that shocked the horse-racing world.