"I wouldn't say anything is impossible. I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and put the work and time into it"

The statement rejects fatalism and embraces a disciplined optimism. Possibility isn’t portrayed as luck or magic, but as the predictable outcome of focused intention paired with sustained effort. “Put your mind to it” speaks to clarity of purpose, mental rehearsal, and the resilience to persist through plateaus. “Put the work and time into it” adds the unglamorous truth: skill and achievement are functions of repetition, incremental improvement, and patience with the slow clock of mastery.

Coming from Michael Phelps, these words carry the weight of lived experience. His career was built on early mornings, meticulous technique, and an unwavering routine; talent set the stage, but habits decided the performance. He demonstrates that belief is not mere affirmation; it is a directive that organizes days, aligns choices, and makes sacrifice intelligible.

The assertion does not deny limits so much as it resists self-imposed ones. Not every outcome is guaranteed, and circumstances vary, yet most people never approach the edges of their capacity. The stance reframes impossibility as uncertainty awaiting experiment: try, measure, adapt, and discover where your boundary actually lies. Progress becomes a more realistic goal than instant triumph, and setbacks become data.

In any domain, art, science, entrepreneurship, fitness, the principle holds. Define a clear target, design a process, and keep showing up. Trade intensity for consistency when motivation dips. Build feedback loops, seek coaching, refine the plan. Time compounds honest effort; weeks knit into competence, years into mastery. Agency grows as actions accumulate, and what once felt unreachable becomes routine.

The message is both liberating and demanding: you can do far more than you think, provided you accept the cost, attention, labor, and time, and pay it, day after day. That promise is not a guarantee of outcomes, but a guarantee of growth. Over time, growth changes what is possible for you. And for others who follow.