This morning I watched a news article about a young woman who had just set a world record for sailing across the English Channel. What was special about this Channel crossing? The sailor, Hilary Lister, is a quadriplegic who steered the boat by blowing through two straws. She completed her crossing in 6 hours.

In her own words, speaking to BBC Breakfast: "If you want to have your dream badly enough you can do it. According to the BBC, she took up sailing two years ago as a way to boost her self-confidence.

And what a way to boost your self-confidence!

How is it that there are some people who seem to have exceptional determination and who drive them selves to succeed against all the odds, and at the other extreme there are people who dont even think about the what ifs?

Its all about attitude. If you believe that something is possible, you can almost always find a way to do it. If you believe that something is impossible, youll almost always find a way NOT to do it.

As we grow up and experience set backs in life, we start to form beliefs about what we are allowed to do and what we arent. And these beliefs can stop us from dreaming, from doing the things that could make us happy, from taking a leap into the unknown.

For a number of years I held the belief that my husband and I would never travel the world. We had a mortgage, steady jobs and a comfortable life. And we told ourselves that we didnt really want to do it anyway traveling was either for students or wealthy retirees. It was only when I bumped into an old school friend who simply said ,just rent your place out and go that I realised wed both been finding reasons not to do it.

Once Id made the shift in my mind that it might be possible, I soon discovered how easy it was to arrange! We decided to go away for a year and to make it a honeymoon. In February we set the date for a June wedding (wed been engaged for 12 years!) and organised the wedding and reception in my spare time within 3 months. But, as the wedding magazines argue, THATS IMPOSSIBLE! You need at least a year to organize a wedding... dont you?

If you really want to do something, you can find a way to do it.

But the first step is opening your mind to the possibilities. What would make you really happy right now? What would give you a sense of achievement? To have a better relationship with your loved ones? To learn to dance? To have more responsibility at work? To go to a concert? To laugh?

Spend some time this weekend thinking about what would make you feel happy and alive. Dream, play and give your mind the chance to wander. Every time you hear yourself saying but or I cant do that because.., ask yourself HOW you could do it. Those obstacles arent so big and scary when you start to think about how you can overcome them.

And its never too late. Colonel Sanders was 65 and living off social security checks. But his unwavering belief in his recipe for fried chicken drove him to start the franchise business that became the KFC we know today. Whether or not you like KFC, youve got admire his courage!