{"id":15998,"date":"2026-07-24T10:59:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T10:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/erikamagyarosi.com\/?p=15998"},"modified":"2026-07-24T13:21:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T13:21:32","slug":"rethink-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erikamagyarosi.com\/de\/rethink-impossible","title":{"rendered":"Why We Need to Rethink the Word “Impossible”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I have been collecting the word “impossible” the way other people collect stamps, for a TEDx talk on the subject. Nine languages so far, across five language families. Not one of them builds the word from a lie.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That’s the finding that changed how I think about my own work.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In English, impossible<\/em> sounds like a verdict, a closed door, a fact about reality itself.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But when I looked at what these words are actually built from, a different idea kept appearing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Across completely different languages, I found the same underlying pattern. Not “this isn’t real,” but something much closer to “this isn’t within reach yet.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s a small difference in language. But if you’ve ever carried a goal that felt impossible, it’s a completely different way of thinking about it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A pattern I didn’t expect<\/strong><\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

I started with the three languages I trusted most before checking anything else. Latin, Greek and Sanskrit all build the word around ability or becoming, never around falsehood.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Because they share a common ancestor, that alone wasn’t enough to convince me. I wanted to know whether the same idea appeared elsewhere.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So I kept looking.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Japanese. Hebrew. Turkish. Chinese. Arabic.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Different language families. Different histories. Yet they kept pointing in the same direction.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here’s the shortest version of what I found:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Language<\/strong><\/td>\nWhat “impossible” is built around<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Latin \u2013 \u201cimpossibilis\u201d<\/strong><\/td>\nAbility<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Greek \u2013 \u201cadynatos\u201d<\/strong><\/td>\nAbility<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sanskrit \u2013 \u201casa\u1e43bhava\u201d<\/strong><\/td>\nComing into being<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Japanese \u2013 \u201cmuri\u201d<\/strong><\/td>\nWhat is reasonable in the situation<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hebrew \u2013 \u201ci efshar\u201d<\/strong><\/td>\nWhat is possible<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Turkish \u2013 \u201cimk\u00e2ns\u0131z\u201d<\/strong><\/td>\nThe means<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chinese \u2013 \u201cb\u00f9 k\u011bn\u00e9ng\u201d<\/strong><\/td>\nAbility and permission<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

One language, though, stopped me cold.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In Arabic, \u0645\u0633\u062a\u062d\u064a\u0644 (musta\u1e25\u012bl), “impossible”, comes from a verb that also means “to transform.” The same verb carries both meanings.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In Arabic, you cannot say <\/strong>impossible<\/em><\/strong> without also saying <\/strong>transformed<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That changes the way I think about the word.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It stops sounding like a final verdict and starts sounding more like a description of a moment.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not something that can never happen, but something that hasn’t become what it could become yet.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One distinction is worth keeping separate from all of this: Of course, a square circle is still impossible. Two contradictory things cannot both be true.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But that’s not the kind of impossible most of us struggle with.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What these languages describe instead is practical impossibility: not enough means, not the right conditions, not yet the right moment.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Why this matters for women with a goal<\/strong><\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

I started seeing the same pattern everywhere.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In particular, in the women I work with.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You’re sitting on a project whose conditions haven’t arrived yet.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not a contradiction in reality.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You also have a body of knowledge with nowhere to go because nothing is forcing it to become finished.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I hear some version of the same sentence from almost every woman before she joins me: I’ve been almost launching, almost getting the promotion, almost finishing, for months, or years.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Overinformed and underdecided. Sitting on more expertise than she has structure for.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The goal didn’t die. In at least one language on this planet, it’s currently the same word as a project mid-transformation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That’s why I couldn’t stop thinking about that Arabic word. It reminds me that what feels impossible is often still in the middle of becoming something else.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Master the Impossible creates the right conditions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

That’s the entire idea behind\u00a0Meistere das Unm\u00f6gliche<\/a>: a deadline, a cohort and one meaningful goal, creating the conditions that so many ambitious women have been missing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s a room you keep showing up to.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For twelve weeks, one goal gets your full attention. The one you’ve been carrying for a year, maybe longer, finally has a place where it is protected, structured and expected to be finished.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Past cohorts have walked away with a first landing page and something real to sell. A manuscript that had sat untouched for years, moving again, 13,000 words in. A certification exam finally booked after two years of saying, “I’ll do it when things calm down.”<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Those are the ordinary, adult, finished version of a thing you already knew how to start, not a launch fantasy.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If you’re reading this and you already know which goal I mean, that recognition is the whole signal.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You don’t need to feel ready. You need the room.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Join Meistere das Unm\u00f6gliche<\/a>, and let’s turn <\/strong>impossible<\/em><\/strong> into something with your name on it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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I have been collecting the word “impossible” the way other people collect stamps, for a TEDx talk on the subject. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[102,104,106,105,100],"class_list":["post-15998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-master-the-impossible","tag-impossible","tag-goal-achievement","tag-language-and-belief","tag-master-the-impossible","tag-mindset"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikamagyarosi.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikamagyarosi.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikamagyarosi.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikamagyarosi.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikamagyarosi.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15998"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/erikamagyarosi.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16015,"href":"https:\/\/erikamagyarosi.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15998\/revisions\/16015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikamagyarosi.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikamagyarosi.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikamagyarosi.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikamagyarosi.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}