Can or Not Be Done
By Moshe Katz
CEO
Israeli Krav International

June 29, 2016, Antofagasta, Chile

I happened to catch a video today of an Asian child who apparently was born with no arms. This is not the first such video I saw. The amazing young girl could do everything using only her feet. She could draw, write beautifully, even thread a needle, all using her feet. Amazing! or is it?

Babies are born able to use their feet as well as their hands but in time they become like the adults and use their feet only for walking. Soon they lose all ability in their feet. Martial artists regain a little use of their feet but are never again able to grab or hold things with their toes, that ability is lost forever.

And then we see this young girl and we see what she can do, because she must. She does not want to be an invalid the rest of her life so she uses her feet the way we use our hands, and we are all dumbfounded. 

Wow! how can she do this? and the truth is we all can, but we lose this ability.

Israel is known as the nation that can do the impossible. That is, it is impossible until someone does it. There is no room here to list all the amazing inventions Israel has contributed to the world. Sufficient to say communication and medicine would not be the same without Israel.

Israel has also performed miracles of Biblical proportions. Operation Entebbe where a team of Israeli soldiers landed in a foreign land far away and rescued an entire plane load of passengers. It was described by the world as Mission Impossible. Israeli history is far more exciting that Hollywood fiction. In fact many Hollywood films are simply poor renditions of Israeli true life experiences.

So how is this relevant to us as individuals? and what can we apply from this to our own lives?

Everyday we tell ourselves I cannot do this! This simply cannot be done. I cannot ever master Krav Maga, I cannot learn a new language, I cannot begin a new career, I cannot change my life. And then we see a little Asian girl writing with her toes and we have to think, what the heck is wrong with me?

We see a guy in a wheel chair doing martial arts and we wonder why we cannot learn a few simple moves. We see the Israelis land a team of commandos in Entebbe and we wonder why we cannot make it to the next down for an important class.

We must remember that most of our limitations are self imposed, and that my friends is the lesson for today.