Performance: A Lesson in The Impossible

Jill is one for inspirational quotes. She has numerous ones pinned to the corkboard in her office, but if she wants me to casually stumble upon a particular quote, she’ll write it on a sticky note and put it on the fridge.

On a recent trip to said fridge, I encountered the following at eye level:

“Start by doing what is necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

And I know why it’s there. It’s because the next big challenge is always brewing somewhere inside me. There are things I haven’t accomplished yet, and things that haven’t been accomplished before.

Jill listens to me at the kitchen table, sometimes with her head in her hands, and then she goes and posts a quote like this.

I think she gets me.

Start by doing what is necessary

Your next big challenge, in any walk of life, is built on the necessary and the mundane.

Training. Nutrition. Recovery. Sleep. Attention to mindset. Positive connection.

Rinse and repeat, day in and day out.

Some days it’s a chore. Some days it’s a passion. Every day, however, it needs to be done.

There are no shortcuts here. You can have the biggest ambitions in the world, but they won’t amount to much if you neglect the things that make performance possible in the first place.

So never discount the quiet effort and dedication you bring to your necessary work. It might not be particularly exciting, and it might not deliver an immediate reward, but it is where everything begins.

Then do what’s possible

It’s important to set goals that take you to the edge of your capability. I do it regularly in training, racing and, yes, life!

It doesn’t actually matter if you get there every time. What matters is that you stretch yourself.

The realm of what’s possible exists in that stretch. You don’t necessarily have to go very far into it, just far enough to explore the edge of your performance capability.

You can stay at that edge for a season or for years. There’s significant growth, discovery and experience to be gained along the way.

You learn patience. You learn respect for the process. And, critically, you learn to fail.

Nobody likes to fail, but if you keep stretching into what’s possible, there will come a point when you fall short. You might get it wrong, misjudge your capability or discover that you’re not quite ready.

That’s not wasted effort. It can be one of the most valuable places for growth, provided you’re willing to learn from the experience.

And when you eventually cross the finish line you’ve been working towards, there are added gifts waiting for you: accomplishment, confidence and the knowledge that you’ve moved your own understanding of what’s possible.

You’ve moved the line.

What is impossible?

Suddenly, you’re doing the impossible

What is an impossible performance?

I’ve thought about this quite a bit over the years, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the question only really has meaning when it relates to you and your performance.

Impossible is personal.

Here’s what I’ve discovered. By dedicating myself to the necessary and constantly stretching into what’s possible, I find myself in a position where I have to redefine my impossible.

Things I considered impossible a few years ago might no longer seem that way today. Not because the challenge itself has changed, but because I’ve changed. I’ve accumulated experience, developed my capabilities and learned more about what I’m capable of doing.

And so the ambition moves.

There comes a point when you can sit at your kitchen table and say something out loud that, not so long ago, you might not even have dared to consider.

It’s a stretch, certainly. But it no longer feels impossible.

That’s an important distinction. This isn’t about setting pie-in-the-sky goals and hoping for the best. It’s about reaching a point in your development where you’ve done enough of the necessary work, and stretched your capabilities far enough, that you can begin to see something previously beyond your reach.

You haven’t arrived there by accident. You’ve built towards it.

And here’s the really important part: even when you can finally see the impossible within reach, it all starts in the same place.

With the hard graft of the necessary.

The work never changes

So, you’ll still find me out on the road, in the sweat and grime of daily effort, working on my fitness, paying attention to my nutrition, sleeping, resting, recovering and staying connected to the people around me.

The ambition might change. The challenge might get bigger. My understanding of what’s possible will continue to evolve.

But the work that gets me there remains much the same.

I think that’s true in most areas of life. Whatever it is you’re trying to achieve, you have to put the foundations in place, be willing to stretch yourself and accept that not every attempt will go to plan.

You don’t need to know exactly how you’ll reach the finish line when you set out. You just need to be prepared to do the work, learn along the way and keep moving towards it.

And who knows? Perhaps our paths will cross on the road, and we’ll ride a few miles together.

In the meantime, I’m curious: what does your impossible look like today?

And more importantly, what are you doing about it?

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If you’re working towards a goal that feels just beyond your reach, perhaps it’s time to explore what’s possible.

Through Train with Joe, I work with cyclists to develop their performance, build confidence in their preparation and discover what they’re capable of achieving.

Sometimes, the next step is simply a conversation.