It was the final exam day, and Tom was in deep trouble because he woke up late. Missing the final was not an option, since he already missed several key assignments earlier in the term. So, Tom sprinted from his dorm to the math class and quietly sneaked in from the back entrance of the lecture hall. There were a couple of equations on the board with an instruction to solve them. There was also a bonus extra credit problem for those who’d like a little challenge. “This isn’t so bad,” Tom thought to himself. He knew that he had always been good at math. But with him being late and all, he spared no time and lunged right to the equations. The equations were long but Tom was on that day. He got through the exam quickly and rushed right into the extra credit problem. He needed the extra credit badly to make up for all the missing assignments. But the bonus points didn’t come easy, for the problem was not like what Tom had ever solved before. It took every ounce of energy but he gave it all he got. He was the last person to finish and his brain was toasted after the exam.

A few days later, he got his exam back. To his surprise, the professor did not give him the score but wrote “Come see me” on top of the exam. “What the *#@!*?” Tom exclaimed. “I didn’t even get a score!” “You’re *@^!* right, old professor! I’m going to go see you about this for sure,” said Tom. As Tom stomped into the professor’s office after class and about to let it all out, the professor smiled and said “Congratulation, Tom! You’ve solved the impossible problem.” He continued “Every year that I teach this course, I would give this extra credit problem on the final exam and tell the students that no one has ever solved this problem in the past 30 years that I’ve been teaching.” The professor stood up and said “Most students didn’t even try to solve it. For the few who attempted, the answers were quite pathetic at best.” “I usually get a kick out of it.” The professor grinned. “You are the first person who nailed it and I wanted to tell you this in person.”

Tom was speechless. He came late to the exam and completely missed the professor’s spiel about the extra credit problem and that no one had solved it for the past 30 years. He didn’t know that it hadn’t been done before. He didn’t know that there was a limit to what he can achieve. He simply just did it. This story is from an unknown source and it may or may not be true. But it doesn’t matter. We can still learn from it. What if Tom had known that it couldn’t be done, would he even try? Most likely not. The same is true for many of us. We’ve been conditioned by our family, friends, and society. We are expected to behave certain ways and do certain things in life. People get uncomfortable when we start to step out of that boundary. We also get uncomfortable outside our comfort zone. But what if there is more to it? What if there is no boundary or comfort zone? What if no one has ever told us it couldn’t be done? Where would you go? What would you do? What if there is no limit in our lives? What would you achieve? The answer lines nowhere else but inside of us. And the first step we can do for ourselves is to ask this question whenever we face a new challenge “What if there is no limit?”

Popularity: 85%