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What do you think about impact of the phrase 'nothing is impossible if you work hard enough' ?
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Try harder.
Its usually the best advice for most things in life. Just. Try. Harder.7 -
1. As the phrase 'nothing is impossible if you work hard enough' is not literally true (we wouldn't tell someone who is blind that they could see if they worked hard enough, for example), what do you assume the 'real' meaning of this phrase usually is? And I'd use this for variations of this idea, too - 'you can do anything if you put your mind to it,' 'all you need is hard work in order to succeed in life,' and so on.
So...what does this phrase mean to you?
2. When you hear phrases like this used, is the general tone positive or negative, or somewhere in between?
Like, positive might be encouraging someone who is feeling like they will never meet their health goals, and reminding them that they are working hard so they are going to see results. Negative might be shaming someone who hadn't met their goals, implying that they would be doing better if they had been working harder.
3. Based on how you hear it being used most often, do you think this phrase promotes a certain type of attitude among people who exercise, and if so, is it a good one?
1. I would interpret those phrases to mean the person saying them believes other people are being lazy if they are struggling to achieve something. I think it is more judgement than encouragement and not realistic. Often it is said by people who had an advantage to those starting with much less. I think it is pretty obvious that you have to work to achieve goals. Not every goal is realistic for everyone even with hard work.
2. Negative, condescending tone usually.
I think when people want to be positive and encouraging they would acknowledge the goal is achievable, note what the person is already doing and what they can realistically do in steps. Like "Sure, you can run a marathon someday. You just started running and are already improving your speed and distance. There is a 5k in a couple of months. Why not train for that for the time being? Keep working at it!"
3. I think it is part of an attitude promising unrealistic, unhealthy results- like you can get an airbrushed model's body if you diet and exercise hard enough. I think taking such a phrase to heart contributes to disordered thinking or injury.3 -
I don't mind it because "within the limits of physical reality" is a codicil my mind puts on EVERYTHING as a scientist. The phrase clearly doesn't mean you can turn into a ball of incandescent gas if you try hard enough. But it does handily summarize the truth that excellence and achievement of a great many things require a LOT of effort and perserverence. These traits are being increasingly disapproved of in common discourse now.
This makes sense to me.
I don't think I've noticed the phrase, though. Is it common now?
I'd probably put in in the category of stuff people say to be encouraging that they haven't really thought through and don't mean literally and not really notice it, so it's possible I've heard it and not really noticed it.
I do think that physical limitations have to be acknowledged and assuming that someone else is struggling or has failed to do something that you have done because they just didn't try is wrong. I'm struggling with the line between encouragement and accepting that someone just can't do more than she is with my mother now, as she's been sick for a while (chronic health condition) and is currently recovering from a broken hip and not doing as well as they want her to be, and after a point apparently the insurance will stop covering some of the extra therapies for the physical recovery from the injury as not likely to succeed. I would not use this particular phrase, obviously, but it is genuinely tough to know what to do (and my father is convinced that my mother could try harder and is not, whereas I am less certain she's not simply doing all she can).
Wow, wasn't really intending to go off about this!3 -
Been hearing this all my life. Generally from privilege jerks who want to feel superior to struggling people based on their own (false, inherited, gifted, etc.) success.
‘One can not achieve anything truly worth having without a heck of a lot of effort and hard work’. That is supportive and encouraging.
OP’s version is garbage and I know what type of smug, privileged, insensitive jerk I’m dealing with when I hear it.7 -
I don't mind it because "within the limits of physical reality" is a codicil my mind puts on EVERYTHING as a scientist. The phrase clearly doesn't mean you can turn into a ball of incandescent gas if you try hard enough. But it does handily summarize the truth that excellence and achievement of a great many things require a LOT of effort and perserverence. These traits are being increasingly disapproved of in common discourse now.
But if you give it enough time and start with a big enough ball of incandescent gas, you can wind up with mountains and oceans and stars and all of us.
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Given the anger about it, I am curious in what context people are being told "nothing is impossible if you work hard enough." Thinking more, I really can't imagine a scenario in which someone has said it to me, or would.1
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lemurcat12 wrote: »Given the anger about it, I am curious in what context people are being told "nothing is impossible if you work hard enough." Thinking more, I really can't imagine a scenario in which someone has said it to me, or would.
No one's ever said it to me, but I'm not one of the angry ones.
I'd probably just laugh at them if someone said that to me.1 -
Wow, I did not expect to be in the minority on this one. That's a perfectly positive phrase and I've found it to be mostly true. The other variant I've heard once was "If someone REALLY wants to do something, that person is going to do it REALLY well." I'm not sure if intelligence, dedication, and strong work ethic counts as 'privilege.'7
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GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »Given the anger about it, I am curious in what context people are being told "nothing is impossible if you work hard enough." Thinking more, I really can't imagine a scenario in which someone has said it to me, or would.
No one's ever said it to me, but I'm not one of the angry ones.
I'd probably just laugh at them if someone said that to me.
Well, I've heard anything is possible ...
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I've never heard it said to anyone other than young children. In fact, I've been saying this to my 4 yr old niece. She has said to me that she wants to be an astronaut, a doctor, a teacher, and a few other professions. My response has been "honey, you can be whatever your heart desires. She's not old enough to understand what hard work really means, but when she gets older I will say that to her. I'd rather say that to her than say "you know, you might have your expectations set a little too high, and you may have some physical limitations later, so you might want you rethink you prospects down the road".4
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1. As the phrase 'nothing is impossible if you work hard enough' is not literally true (we wouldn't tell someone who is blind that they could see if they worked hard enough, for example), what do you assume the 'real' meaning of this phrase usually is? And I'd use this for variations of this idea, too - 'you can do anything if you put your mind to it,' 'all you need is hard work in order to succeed in life,' and so on.
So...what does this phrase mean to you?
It means I'm the only person standing between me and my potential.2. When you hear phrases like this used, is the general tone positive or negative, or somewhere in between?
Generally the context it'd be used is when a person starts making excuses, oh my thyroid; my metabolism, I don't have time, I don't feel like it, etc.4. Based on how you hear it being used most often, do you think this phrase promotes a certain type of attitude among people who exercise, and if so, is it a good one?
It promotes taking responsibilities for oneself, so yes, it's a good one. Yes obviously you will never run faster than Usain Bolt, or exceed your genetics, but that is usually implied by context.6 -
I too have only heard it said to children.1
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WorkerDrone83 wrote: »Wow, I did not expect to be in the minority on this one. That's a perfectly positive phrase and I've found it to be mostly true. The other variant I've heard once was "If someone REALLY wants to do something, that person is going to do it REALLY well." I'm not sure if intelligence, dedication, and strong work ethic counts as 'privilege.'
You look young and healthy.
That might be why you think anything is possible.
That's also a privileged position, whether you realize it or not.
No matter how badly I want it, or how hard I work, I'll never be able to lunge to full depth or squat ATG, for example. I'm older with two forms of arthritis, and my joints will only take me so far.
Now I have gone from walking with a cane to running, so while *that* was possible, I don't think ANYTHING is possible. In fact, I know it isn't.
Mind you, I'm not pulling some victimized thing here. I just know that I have limits due to a medical condition. That's facing reality. I'm not bitter or anything like that.
I just don't like trite, pat little sayings like this. There are lots of things people face. I think the important thing is to do your best, whatever your circumstances are. I may not be able to do everything, but I'm doing far more than I ever thought I could, and I think that's pretty damned awesome enough.11 -
1. As the phrase 'nothing is impossible if you work hard enough' is not literally true (we wouldn't tell someone who is blind that they could see if they worked hard enough, for example), what do you assume the 'real' meaning of this phrase usually is? And I'd use this for variations of this idea, too - 'you can do anything if you put your mind to it,' 'all you need is hard work in order to succeed in life,' and so on.
So...what does this phrase mean to you?
2. When you hear phrases like this used, is the general tone positive or negative, or somewhere in between?
Like, positive might be encouraging someone who is feeling like they will never meet their health goals, and reminding them that they are working hard so they are going to see results. Negative might be shaming someone who hadn't met their goals, implying that they would be doing better if they had been working harder.
3. Based on how you hear it being used most often, do you think this phrase promotes a certain type of attitude among people who exercise, and if so, is it a good one?
I'd say it's a poorly crafted aphorism, intended to be inspiring, but rather coming across as insipid, trite, and cliched.13 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »WorkerDrone83 wrote: »Wow, I did not expect to be in the minority on this one. That's a perfectly positive phrase and I've found it to be mostly true. The other variant I've heard once was "If someone REALLY wants to do something, that person is going to do it REALLY well." I'm not sure if intelligence, dedication, and strong work ethic counts as 'privilege.'
You look young and healthy.
That might be why you think anything is possible.
That's also a privileged position, whether you realize it or not.
No matter how badly I want it, or how hard I work, I'll never be able to lunge to full depth or squat ATG, for example. I'm older with two forms of arthritis, and my joints will only take me so far.
Now I have gone from walking with a cane to running, so while *that* was possible, I don't think ANYTHING is possible. In fact, I know it isn't.
Mind you, I'm not pulling some victimized thing here. I just know that I have limits due to a medical condition. That's facing reality. I'm not bitter or anything like that.
I just don't like trite, pat little sayings like this. There are lots of things people face. I think the important thing is to do your best, whatever your circumstances are. I may not be able to do everything, but I'm doing far more than I ever thought I could, and I think that's pretty damned awesome enough.
Indeed. We don't have control over a great many things. Winning, losing, genetic, medical conditions etc. What we do have control over is the effort we put forth in achieving our goals, whatever they may be. As long as you give it your absolute best (and deep down we know wether or not we do) you can hold your head up high and be content with who you are at this moment...4 -
WorkerDrone83 wrote: »That's a perfectly positive phrase and I've found it to be mostly true... I'm not sure if intelligence, dedication, and strong work ethic counts as 'privilege.'
For you, it's awesome that this has mostly held true in your life. No sarcasm intended; seriously, glad that this has worked for you.
I just wanted to address really briefly how you expressed your idea of privilege, though, because I think it's relevant to the discussion, actually.
IMO, privilege is just basically saying that a person got an easier difficulty setting on their 'video game of life.' If a person is white, there are difficulty settings that are easier for them than they are for someone whose black, for example. And it's the setting, not the individual experience, that we talk about. Where it's not what happens to one person, but the ODDS of something happening overall, so it impacts the 'world,' and people, as a whole, even with outliers in individuals.
So things like the odds that a cop will pull you over when you are not speeding. Odds that you will get a positive/negative response from someone based on your skin tone. Odds that you will start the game with more gold. Odds that you will be offered good quests, or that your quests will have good loot. Odds that a 'guild' will accept you as a member. All of this is involved in the difficulty setting of life, or the privilege in life, if that makes sense?
And from my experience, the thing people have a problem with, in statements like 'nothing is impossible if you work hard enough,' is that if you take two people who work just as hard, are just as smart, and just as dedicated, you will have wildly different results for them depending on a lot of factors that are not in their control. Many times, it's the difficulty setting/privilege. Sometimes, it's flat out luck. Working hard IS part of the process, don't get me wrong. Things are much less likely to happen without hard work.
But hard work is not the defining factor of success, I guess is what I'm saying. It's simply one of many factors involved.
This guy I thought had a pretty good article on his views on the subject that I think express my own thoughts.
https://medium.com/@tomnew/nothing-is-impossible-if-you-work-hard-enough-*kitten*-4fdf4d83937dlemurcat12 wrote: »Given the anger about it, I am curious in what context people are being told "nothing is impossible if you work hard enough." Thinking more, I really can't imagine a scenario in which someone has said it to me, or would.
When I've had variations of this theme said to me, it's usually not so much 'nothing is impossible,' and more 'THIS thing is completely possible if you work hard enough.' And what is 'possible' starts to encompass so much that it essentially becomes 'everything is possible' or 'nothing is impossible.'
In my own experience, it is never used with the caveat of 'within the limits of physical reality,' as the one poster considered it, because so many people apply that consideration only in the most obvious sense. Blindness, for example
But for things that are less obvious, far too many times I have seen people use their own reality as the yardstick for someone else's reality, and also assume that any differences don't make a differences, and quite frequently it isn't true. The more different two people are, the more their reality is probably not the same. And for folks whose reality differs from the majority of people around them - people who have chronic illness and are exercising in a gym, for example - they are going to have a REALLY different reality from those around them.
I think of some folks with chronic pain, who expend huge amounts of energy just to physically get through the day. And then I see an athlete, who is expending no more energy during their day than these folks with chronic pain are, but people look at what the athlete can accomplish, and what the ill person can accomplish, and they assume the athlete worked harder. Which completely dismisses the effort the ill person has done. I think that's one of the main reasons for a lot of the frustration and anger, you know?
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Sounds like a good way to encourage someone to overexert themselves.3
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How about Yoda's "Do. Or do not. There is no try."4
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I say it to my kids. They know what their weaknesses are and their strengths. It is nice to see my youngest(13) running the track practice for soccer where as the other children are walking cause they are "too tired"!!!! 13 and TOO LAZY and this Mama is proud her boys believe they have it in them to go far in life...as long as they try 2
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If I'm dragging my heels out of laziness or lack of confidence, sometimes a phrase like that can get me out of my funk. If I say it to me.
I'm uncoordinated and lousy at sports. I recall sitting across the table from someone at a friend's house who was touting the benefits of playing tennis, kept insisting that I could be really good 'if I only committed to it and worked at it', that 'nothing is impossible if I keep trying'. And I'm sitting there trying to be polite while thinking, "Um... no. This isn't something I'm going to be good at. Or want to be. I can spend hours practicing something that's going to frustrate me and maybe move from 'total klutz' to 'sort of mediocre'. Or I can take the time I'd be spending on tennis and channel it into something I'm actually good at and get results I want."
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