I am joining a club called Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  It was started by Sandy through her excellent blog, Another Lovely Day.   The club has a simple premise:

Focus on things that you have come to believe are impossible or improbable, and start believing in them.  

The reference to six impossible things is from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

The Queen has just asked Alice how old she is. Alice answers, “I’m seven and a half exactly.”

“You needn’t say exactly,’” the Queen remarked: “I can believe it without that. Now I’ll give you something to believe. I’m just one hundred and one, five months and a day.”

“I can’t believe that,” said Alice.

“Can’t you?” the Queen said, in a pitying tone. “Try again; draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”

Alice laughed.

“There is no use trying,” said Alice; “one can’t believe impossible things.”

“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” ‘

Step one is a declaration and putting your list of impossible things in writing, and then making sure you look at them every morning, visualising yourself achieving them.

I’m up for it.  I believe in setting stretching goals, for sure, and love the idea of going one step further with some “impossible” ones.  So here goes, here’s my list:

1.  Writing - Get that book written and get it published.

2.  Fitness – Do something out of the ordinary requiring you to be fit in order to succeed.  Climb Kilimanjaro, complete Wainwright’s Coast to Coast walk, do the Two Moors Way in Devon and Cornwall.

3.  Music – play the organ in Notre Dame, Paris,  preferably alone in the building, at midnight.  Jehan Alain’s “Litanies” would do well.  (Watch this through to the end with the volume up full if you are wondering why.)

4.  Visibility - Create a training video that goes viral.  1 million hits at least.

5.  Legacy – Raise over £1 million for charity by the time I die.

6.  Self Fulfilment – Buy a grand piano (preferably a Bosendorfer), rebuild my piano technique from scratch, and accompany my grandchild playing Finzi’s “Five Bagatelles” for clarinet and piano.

Woohoo, feels good writing these down!  And of course a little scary.  I will report on progress from time to time (probably annually on New Year’s Day).  These big hairy goals feel different to the usual ones I set myself, so I am intrigued to find out how effective they are.

Now then, what about you?  How about joining up and egging each other on a bit?  What do you have to lose?  We only get one go in life, after all.  If you’re a Blogger, send me a link to the Blog in which you share them, and if not, let me know somehow what you decide on.

“Now then, draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”

(I took this picture last year in lovely Hampshire. It’s the River Test, and one day I shall pull a 4lb Rainbow Trout from its inky depths.  That can be impossible dream number 7.)

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