In his 2008 Valedictory Address to the graduating class at Notre Dame, Joshua Hammack made these challenging remarks:  “Speaking of the impossible, I believe that word takes unfair blame for people’s unwillingness to try.  It seems like whenever you have an audacious goal, someone wants to focus on its impracticality.”

Never is that more true than when the audacious goal is our own - and we are usually the “someone” who is pointing out its impracticality.

It is not hard to find “evidence” that we probably won’t succeed at something, whatever that thing may be.  It is likely that a number of people have failed at it. And if many people have failed, it can seem practical, even wise, to be concerned that we may also fail.  In fact, it we were to weigh the number of people failing against the number succeeding, our success might be statistically very unlikely.

Statistics, however, do not apply to individual lives.  Was it statistically likely that Julia Roberts (or any successful actor) would become a great actor?  That Roger Bannister would run a mile in under four minutes?  That Donald Trump would build the business empire he has built?  That Oprah would become one of the richest, most influential women in the world?

The world is full of people – both famous and not so well known – who have beat the odds or made something entirely new happen.  They have literally created their own success by wanting it badly enough, focusing on it, and disciplining themselves to achieve it.

Later in his address, Joshua Hammack said,  “Now, you must dare to do the things no one believes you can do.  And let every person, every voice who tells you ‘you can’t’ propel you to prove that you can.”

This goes double when one of the loudest voice telling you that “you can’t” is your own.