In the 1930’s Napoleon Hill, author of the all time bestseller, “Think and Grow Rich” wrote, “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” I thought it had a catchy ring to it when I first read it but I always believed there were limits to the veracity of this statement. Could we really achieve anything we thought of if we believed we could?

Maybe we can. A while back, I got an e-mail from my sister with a link to a YouTube video about a copy machine that copies objects in 3-D. That means that after it scans a 3-D object, it quickly produces an exact fully operational three dimensional color replica of the scanned item. The whole process takes about 90 minutes.

This blew my mind. The printer not only re-creates the item fully assembled but it also recreates its complete functionality. In the original demo, a guy brings a large adjustable steel crescent wrench and asks the folks at Z-Corp to replicate it. They place the wrench inside the printer and Voila! — out comes a fully functional sturdy adjustable wrench.  Check out how 3-D printing has evolved since its inception (below).

If inventions like this are possible, the only hang-up seems to be believing that our creations can manifest. An idea without a belief in it’s possibility is dead in the water.

Imagine how many incredible things have never have manifested not because they couldn’t be imagined but because someone, after the idea was hatched said, “Naaaaah! It’ll never happen” and someone else agreed.

People creating and sustaining their houses and cars on clean energy that they produce at home, politicians acting in the best interest of the country without worrying about raising money for their re-election, people in the middle east (or in our congress, for that matter) deciding that peaceful negotiation was in their best interest, workers trusting management and vice versa so that the whole company was aligned on winning business, satisfying customers, and providing abundance for all. Have you heard yourself say, “Naaah” or “Not likely,” yet?

One way to get past our own doubts and cynicism is to imagine what it would feel like if some of our ideas really did happen. That’s part of the creation process — to set aside any judgments about probability and allow yourself to experience how you’d feel if it really were possible.

I’d love to hear what you’ve conceived of that would make the world a better place and how you’d feel if what you imagined came to be.