Ethan A. Taylor: Achieve Your Impossible

Love this.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Nathan Lambes about how to stay focused on your goal, even in the midst of a detour, along with navigating graduate school while working and raising a family.

I have an organic view of podcasts and think it should be a natural conversation with limited editing. I hope you also enjoy some of the nerdy tangents we go down along the way, as it’s a natural representation of our friendship.

Ethan with Nathan Lambes by Ethan A. Taylor: Achieve Your Impossible • A podcast on Anchor I hope you enjoy my conversation with Nathan about how to stay focused on your goal, even in the midst of a detour, along with navigating graduate school while working and raising a family. I have an organic view of podcasts and think it should be a natural conversation with limited editing. I hope....

“If your dream ain’t bigger than you, there’s a problem with your dream.” -Deion Sanders, Hall of Fame speech.

Four blog-style posts in and you may be asking yourself if I have any material past that from Deion’s Hall of Fame speech. The answer is yes, but the quotes I’ve selected are important when beginning this journey. Without a belief in ourself, we wouldn’t pursue our impossible. We would view it as such and not put in the effort. We would pursue an easier path, which may not be our passion, because of the perceived potential for quicker success.

Now that we’re established the foundation for achieving your impossible, let’s discover what your dream is. What is your passion and makes you excited to get out of bed in the morning? To begin, take some time reflecting upon what your passions are and where you want to be in five years, ten years, or whatever your selected time frame is. Then, make a list of what you do and have done. Once you have made the list, break it down into its basic verbs. Do you write, speak, teach, heal, create, etc.? Use those skills to begin the initial pursuit of your dream.

At the core of your dream lies the purpose. Who or what are you helping with your dream? When I wanted to be a veterinarian, I wanted to advocate for something without a voice. I loved (still do) animals and wanted to provide superior medical care with the challenge of not being able to speak with my patients. Now in public health, I want to use my interest in infectious diseases to help reduce the burden of infectious disease allowing people to live healthier lives and have the ability to devote more time to education, professional endeavors, and the activities they love. In starting this page and podcast, I want to encourage others and show the blueprint I was able to follow to achieve things many people would say was impossible given my background.

No matter what you identify as your dream and goal do not limit yourself. It doesn’t matter how large or unattainable it seems. As we move forward, we will go through the steps that will break your dream down into short-term attainable goals, while keeping your long-term goals in mind, to build toward achieving your impossible. Through these steps, a favorite saying of mine comes to mind – How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. That is how we will build to achieving your goals.

For more advice directed specifically toward your goal, please reach out for coaching. I am currently developing a coaching plan and would love to meet with you individually to help you toward achieving your wildest dreams.

I’m not sure for what I originally wrote this a few years ago, but found it last night and thought it worth sharing:

“My words of inspiration would be to never be the first person to tell yourself no. There are plenty of people in the world who will do that. It is our job to believe in our dream and pursue it relentlessly no matter what it is, what our background is, or what our means are. If we are the first person to tell ourselves no, it means we are not even going to try and not trying is worse than not succeeding. So much of life can be done just through the belief in the capabilities of oneself. Go bold, be bold, and leave your mark on the world.”

This podcast episode will leave you with all the feels. At one point, I had a tear in my eye and a few minutes later we were laughing together. If you are or ever have struggled with loss, I hope you find hope and inspiration in his story. We can all learn from Kris’ “do the next right thing” philosophy.

Ethan with Kris Day by Ethan A. Taylor: Achieve Your Impossible • A podcast on Anchor This podcast episode will leave you with all the feels. At one point, I had a tear in my eye and a few minutes later we were laughing together. If you are or ever have struggled with loss, I hope you find hope and inspiration in his story. We can all learn from Kris’ “do the next right thing” ...

In my last post, I wrote on self-confidence and its importance. In it, I made the statement, “self-confidence is a simple thing people tend to make too hard for themselves. At the base level, self-confidence comes from not recognizing the difficulty of what you’re trying to achieve.” I tend to tell people my self-confidence comes from being too stupid to understand all the ways in which I could fail.

The more I reflected, I realized there is a very important component of self-confidence I overlooked – the support system. It is here the Epictetus quote, “the key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best” comes into play. If you’re only around individuals who point out the reasons you will fail, having a confidence in yourself will be exceedingly difficult. While it’s fun to tell people my confidence comes from stupidity or naivety, it is rooted in a strong support system.

Growing up, my family was very supportive and I always heard I could achieve whatever I set out to do. That provided me with the ability to see why I would be successful more so than why I would fail. This early foundation provided me the ability to dream crazily, instead of realizing how difficult reaching those heights would be. As I grew and worked, I had many supportive friends, coworkers, managers, and mentors. These people provided encouragement and support of my goals.

My first job out of undergrad was at a dermatopathology lab. I had been working about 8 hours a week at a veterinary hospital and searched for a full-time position for 6 months before landing the job. When I started in the lab, I had just started my Masters program and was contemplating pursing a PhD with minimal research experience. Beginning my Masters because I was rejected from veterinary school, I looking a PhD programs realizing how difficult it would be for the first time in my life. I was employed by the lab for four months before moving on to another opportunity, but in those four months my coworkers repeatedly encouraged me to pursue a PhD and told me how great I would be at it. I could provide countless examples of people providing encouragement for whatever goals I set regardless of how crazy or outlandish. Their support and encouragement made it easy to be confident in my abilities.

The moral of the story is to have a strong support system, not a group of “yes” men. Supportive people make one believe in themselves & their ideas and help grow those ideas. Instead of just pointing out the challenges, they propose solutions to your challenges. When I first developed the idea of the page and podcast, I called one of my best friends and we brainstormed the idea for half an hour. It’s important to have supportive people around and who can provide good, constructive criticism.

As you begin building the foundation for chasing your dreams, build a strong support system. Choose people who see your vision, help develop your ideas, but also aren’t afraid to have tough conversations with you. Seek the counsel of those with broad experiences and expertise. When pursuing your passions, there will be challenges and difficulties. Select people who will encourage you in those moments and won’t let you give up. With a strong support system, you, your vision, and self-confidence will grow.

You’ll enjoy this episode of the Achieve Your Impossible with Dr. Gizem Levent, as she shares her travels, learning new languages & cultures, and her unique outlook on life!

Ethan with Dr. Gizem Levent by Ethan A. Taylor: Achieve Your Impossible • A podcast on Anchor You’ll enjoy this episode of Achieve Your Impossible with Dr. Gizem Levent, as she shares her travels, learning new languages & cultures, and her unique outlook on life!

Hi everyone! Want to share the podcast, but don’t know how?! I’ve now created a brief indroductory podcast (less than a minute long) describing the podcast and page for new listeners. Additionally, I realized the last 3 minutes of my interview with Taylor was not uploaded, but is now included!

Ethan A. Taylor: Achieve Your Impossible • A podcast on Anchor Achieve Your Impossible seeks to highlight individuals who have overcome challenges in their personal and professional lives while pursuing their dreams. My hope is people can listen to the podcast and hear stories of individuals, just like them, who overcame the odds and are inspired to pursue thei...

“What separates us is that we expect to be great… I expect to be great. I expect to do what hasn’t been done. I expect to provoke change.” -Deion Sanders, Hall of Fame Speech

I admitted to loving this speech and you will see that more in the coming posts. In the last post I utilized the quote, “if you don’t believe in yourself, how will somebody else believe in you?” from the same speech. Today’s quotes are along a similar line. The foundation for determining your dream and steps toward achieving your impossible is the expectation that, no matter what it is you’re seeking to achieve, you are capable and deserving of such achievement. The size and scope of our goals is determined by how capable we feel.

I firmly believe we are all capable of achieving whatever we want, but first need to believe we are capable and deserving of such things. Self-confidence is a simple thing people tend to make too hard for themselves. At the base level, self-confidence comes from not recognizing the difficulty of what you’re trying to achieve. Even if you’re the first person with your idea and you’re beginning at the ground level, you have to truly believe you care capable of achievement. Self-doubt creeps in when we look outside of our own capabilities and at all the reasons those around us or the world provides that we aren’t enough. From that point on, we think, “what’s the point?” We recluse into our shell, tell ourselves “no”, and never try. Our idea never gets off of the ground, not because of a lack of capability, but because of self-doubt.

Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders understood part of what separated himself and his fellow Hall of Famers was between the ears. It was their self-belief. On the football field, and in life, so much of success is mental. The position of cornerback is one of short memory. It’s not if you will give up the big play or touchdown, but when, no matter your skill level. Some of you may remember my playing days, if you lived in my community. My freshman year, I was 5’ 4”, weighed 95 pounds, and ran as if I were in quicksand playing the same cornerback position as Deion. I was one of the shortest and slowest players going against some of the tallest and fastest players the other team had to offer. As you can imagine, I got beat deep… a lot that year. It was repeated failure; however, with each failure I knew I would learn and improve. Eventually, through growth (literally) and my experience, I became better. Through all of my failure, I never viewed myself as uncapable, but needing improvement. With every play, I believed I would make the stop. If I didn’t, not only would I not, but there wouldn’t be a point in playing. This same concept applies to whatever you would like to achieve in life.

These repeated failures set me up for life. As we will get into in future posts, I have heard “no” way more than “yes” and it will always be that way. However, those detours are just that, detours. They are not a reflection of your capability, nor should you view them as such. Detours are learning experiences. Continue believing in yourself and your dream. Your internal belief in yourself should always remain. With that belief and perseverance, you will slowly begin to achieve your impossible.

As you move forward, I challenge you to not limit yourself. As you ponder your next steps and end goal, dream unhindered. You will not achieve everything in a day, but through diligence, will get there one day at a time.

The podcast is now up and running on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, PocketCasts, and RadioPublic! Unfortunately, there have been some issues with publication on Google Podcasts, which will be resolved soon. You can find the podcast by searching for "Ethan A. Taylor: Achieve Your Impossible". There are two spots near the hour mark in which the audio gets a little fuzzy, but I'm very pleased with the first episode. I'm certain you will enjoy Taylor's story!

Please, remember to subscribe and rate the podcast to help it move up in the search algorithms and so you are notified of new episodes!

The podcast has officially been submitted under the name “Ethan A. Taylor: Achieve Your Impossible”. Once it has gone through distribution and publication, it’ll be available on the following platforms:

- Apple Podcasts
- Breaker
- Castbox
- Google Podcast
- Overcast
- PocketCasts
- RadioPublic
- Spotify
- TuneIn

Thank you, Trevor McNutt, for doing the cover art! You did an awesome job, as always!

Unfortunately, Dr. Ogunrinu had to postpone his podcast interview, but I am so excited my cousin, Taylor McNutt, was able to fill in on short notice! You won’t want to miss this first episode of the Achieve Your Impossible podcast. Taylor is in Influencer Relations in Los Angeles and an an excellent storyteller. She moved to LA without a place to live or job in October of 2019. Since then, she has overcome the pandemic and a family emergency on the path to achieving her dreams. If you’re afraid to take the first step or ready to give up, this is the episode for you! As soon as I have the podcast art set up and uploaded to iTunes, the podcast will be available everywhere you can get a podcast.

I realize not everyone may be familiar with me or what allows me to write with authority on these topics, so I thought it would be helpful to describe my background before starting more topical posts. I was born and raised in a small community in southwestern Ohio. My parents work in a factory and the school system, their parents administrative assistants, steel mill workers, and electricians, and their parents farmers, coal miners, and steel mill workers. Early in my life, my parents put a heavy emphasis on education. Their encouragement of education, self-expression, and my goals, along with my involvement in sports, set me up to be successful.

Shortly after turning 16, I started my first job and often held multiple jobs and volunteer positions while pursuing Bachelor’s, Masters, and Doctoral degrees. Now 29, I have worked in veterinary medicine, dermatopathology, pharmaceuticals, public health, and consumer products industries. My work has included academic, industry, and government positions in Fortune 50 companies and top research institutions involving outbreak investigations, hurricane response, policy engagements on state & federal levels of government, conference presentations on the other side of the globe, and more. Even still, I’ve heard “no” at least 287 (yes, I counted) notable times between 2010 and 2020.

Many of the keys to my success lie in my upbringing and the support of my family, friends, and community. Through this support, I developed a self-confidence that is really at the base of achieving your impossible. How you view and what you think about yourself impacts your actions and your dreams. The topic of a future post, Deion Sanders said in his Hall of Fame speech, “if you don’t believe in yourself, how will somebody else believe in you?” You see, “never be the first person to tell yourself ‘no’” isn’t just about taking the first steps toward achieving your impossible, but displaying your belief in yourself and your dream through action. Your passion and belief will make others want to be a part of the great things you set out to achieve. Deion’s Hall of Fame speech is one of my all-time favorites and I highly encourage each of you to take a listen.

There are already 6 amazing individuals lined up to be guests on the “Achieve Your Impossible”podcast with the first episode set to be taped this week! You will not want to miss these inspirational stories beginning with Dr. James Ogunrinu, a Nigerian physician who came to the United States to complete his Master of Public Health and Doctor of Philosophy degrees! These amazing individuals will capture your imagination and, hopefully, help you find the inspiration to take the first steps to achieve your impossible! I’m grateful to have the support of great friends and colleagues willing to share their stories!

I am incredibly excited to finally launch my page dedicated to helping people achieve their impossible through self-confidence beginning with the mantra, "never be the first person to tell yourself 'no'". Oftentimes, we don't pursue our passions, ambitious, and dreams because we are the first to tell ourselves "no". We see all of the hurdles, what we don't know, the uncertainty, lack of resources, security, etc., become paralyzed with fear, and don't take action. Even if we start to make steps toward our goal, we become frustrated from hearing "no" so often. Here's a little secret: don't let other people tell you "no" either.

As we journey throughout the steps of self-confidence and achieving our impossible, I will share parts of my story relating to each topic. Some of the first topics will include:

*Dare to Dream
*Self-confidence
*Setting Goals
*Identifying Mentors
*Making Connections
*Finding Opportunities
*And More

In the near future, I will launch the "Achieve Your Impossible" podcast. The podcast will focus on individuals who overcame challenges to their dreams and how they did so. My hope is that, through this page and podcast, you will find something that helps you, whether it's hearing the story of someone in a situation similar to yours who overcame those obstacles, a new idea on how to reach the next level of your goal, or simply the confidence to get started. No matter where you are in the pursuit of your wildest dream, from still a daydream to on the doorstep of achievement, this page will have something for you.

If you only take one thing from this page, please don't be the first person to tell yourself "no".