I got this idea for an Impossible List from Thomas Frank, who got the idea from Joel Runyon (…so I guess I’m plagiarizing both of them?) Joel defines an Impossible List as a list of:
All the things I ever thought I couldn’t do because it was “impossible.” The sort of things that I assumed the cool guys on TV only ever got to do. The things I never thought that I would be able to do.
I wrote my Impossible List last year but I think sharing it with the internet, like Thomas and Joel have done, will make it more satisfying to complete!
I’ve already done a lot of things I previously thought were impossible so I’ve included these achievements for completeness. It’s also quite interesting to see how my mindset has changed over the last few years: things I previously thought impossible I now see as trivially easy – and therein lies the beauty of self-development.
My Impossible List:
Intellectual:
Get 11 A*s at GCSE– August 2011Win the Harvard Prize for highestASLevel results– August 2011Get 4 A*s at A Level– August 2012Get into LSE for Economics– February 2013Get into Cambridge for Economics– January 2013Win the Rishi Madlani Award for the highest mark in Macroeconomics– this was something I really set my mind to and made it happen, very proud of it, June 2015Win the Economics Examiner Prize for the highest mark at LSE– June 2015- Win the Premchand Prize for the highest mark in Monetary Economics
Become a university teacher– September 2017Get the highest student survey results– March 2018
- Become a lecturer
- Get a distinction in MPhil Finance & Economics at Cambridge
- Complete a Harvard MBA
- Study MSc Biology at Oxford
- Study MSc Neuroscience at UCL
- Study MSc Applied Mathematics at Imperial
- Study at Princeton
- Study at Yale
- Study at MIT
- Complete a DPhil in Neuroscience at Stanford
- Study at Peking University, Beijing
- Earn a 2000+ Elo score (master level)
- Publish a research paper
- Author a book
Reach fluency in Spanish- Reach native fluency in Spanish
- Pass the C2 Spanish DELE exam
- Reach fluency in French
- Reach conversational fluency in Mandarin
- Reach conversational fluency in Portuguese
- Reach conversational fluency in Italian
- Reach conversational fluency in Japanese
- Reach conversational fluency in German
- Learn basic Russian
- Learn basic Greek
- Learn to read Sanskrit
- Learn to fly a plane
- Learn machine learning
- Hit grade 8 in piano
Solve a Rubik’s cube in <60 seconds– January 2014Solve in <30 seconds– February 2014- Solve in <10 seconds
Physical:
Get a six pack– you can see how I did it here, October 2017Do a pushup– seriously, couldn’t do one till I was 18, October 2013Do 50 consecutive pushups– October 2017- Do 100 consecutive pushups
- Do a planche pushup
Do a chin-up– they’re so hard! April 2017Do 10 consecutive chin-ups– September 2017- Do 20 consecutive chin-ups
Bench press 60kg– August 2017- Bench press 100kg
- Hex-bar deadlift 2.5x bodyweight
- Squat 100kg
- Do a muscle-up
- Perform a slam dunk
- Black belt BJJ
Run 5K– April 2017- Win one amateur boxing match
- Fight for the Cambridge Varsity Boxing Team (against Oxford)
- Learn to breakdance
- Learn to salsa dance
- Perform a slam dunk
- Learn to surf
- Learn to windsurf
Learn to kitesurf– February 2019
Business:
Get featured inForbes– January 2018Speak in front of a live 100+ crowd– April 2012- Speak in front of a live 1000+ crowd
- Appear on BBC News for an interview
- Work in Silicon Valley
- Start own summer school
- Start own school
- Start own university
Adventure:
Go parasailing– December 2017Go jet-skiing– December 2017- Ride an elephant
- Seven wonders of the world:
- Great Pyramid
- Hanging Gardens
- Statue of Zeus
- Temple of Artemis and Ephesus
- Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
- Colossus of Rhodes
- Lighthouse of Alexandria
- Try i-o-waska
- Try shrooms
Paragliding– January 2019- Dive with whales
Dive with sharks– February 2019- Go rafting
- American road trip (man vs. food style)
- Try shrooms
- 10 day meditation retreat
Ride a camel– August 2018- Hike a mountain
- Teach in Africa
- Horseback riding
- Go caving
- Walk down the Great Wall of China
- Helicopter ride over New York City
- Drive a Lamborghini through the Hollywood Hills
- Fly to the moon
- Visit a volcano
- Hike Mt Fuji
- Hike Mt Kilamanjaro
- Sail down the Amazon river
- Go to space
- Go canyoning
Stay at the El Rio hostelGo tubing- Scale a cliff face
- Go rock climbing
- Kayak between South East Asian islands
- Eat at every Michelin star restaurant in the world
Go scuba diving– January 2019Taganga, Colombia– January 2019Coiba Island– February 2019- Tulum, Mexico
- Great Barrier Reef, Australia
- Train Muay Thai in Thailand for one month
- Train as a boxer in the Philippines for one month
- Visit my long-lost Welsh relatives (Mitson is apparently Welsh in origin)
- Visit my Dad’s birthplace, Orissa
- Burning man
- Travel S. America with a Spanish/Latina girlfriend
- Make sushi in Japan
- Learn origami in Japan
- Learn to cook French cuisine (well!)
- Swim in a waterfall
- Go NYE island-hopping in the Caribbean
- Bungee jump
- Hang glide
- Skydive
Miscellaneous:
Get high– June 2016- Go to a strip club
- Produce a beat
- Build a house
- Draw/paint a self-portrait
- Draw/paint a family portrait
- Restore a classic car
- Break an existing Guinness world record
- Set original Guinness world record
- Build own computer
- Start a family
- Don’t get divorced!
- Publish one comic book
- Make own chess board
- Build own house
- Bribe a police officer
- Own a tailored suit
- Build furniture for own house
- Save one person from committing suicide
- Perform as a stand-up comic and finish my set
- Direct a short movie
Complete F-Zero– 2007- Complete Mario 64
- Complete original Crash Bandicoot saga
- Complete original Spyro saga
- Beat Trap Adventure 2
- Beat Trap Adventure 2 on one-life mode
Start a blog– August 2016- Start a vlog/Youtube channel
- Learn photography
- Become a lifelike portrait artist
- Own a fully tailored wardrobe
- Own a Mercedes SLS AMG
- Realise there’s no end, there’s just this
That’s it…for now 🙂 But I’ll keep this updated as I complete list items, and think of new items to add.