The Power of "I Must"
Oct 15, 2026
Have you ever been presented a task so unimaginable that you thought it couldn’t be done? In those moments, what does it take to do the impossible?
On May 24 1869, that’s what faced a small group of men in the windswept and isolated town of Green River, Wyoming. Their impossible goal? To be the first group of people to navigate the Colorado river by boat.
In the 1860’s after the Civil War, America’s gaze turned westward as the country was eager to expand. Ever since Lewis and Clark’s expedition first trekked to the Pacific in 1805, Americans wanted to explore. And by the late 1860’s, pretty much everywhere had been mapped.
That is… everywhere except the remote expanse known as the Colorado Plateau.
Ever since the Spanish first laid eyes on the Grand Canyon in the 1540’s, few people had successfully explored the vast area. And the stories that emerged, were nothing short of fantastic. Towering canyons, dangerous rivers, and inhospitable terrain were so impassible, that everyone just avoided it. And so in 1869 while maps of the western United States showed cities and features of nearly everywhere else, right at their center was a blank and unexplored void the size of France.
And so the US sent the most unlikely of men to fix it.
At first glance, you would not have expected John Wesley Powell to be the first to run the Colorado. Coming in at a lean 5 ft 6 inches, Powell, a Civil War veteran with one arm, was described as a lean piece of beef jerky with a bushy beard made out of steel wool.
But it was his determination that set him apart.
He KNEW that the river started in Green River Wyoming, and he KNEW that it emptied out north of modern day Las Vegas. But in between? They had no idea what lay in store. There could have been jagged tunnels, thundering rapids, or massive waterfalls the size of Niagara.
Any one of these would have deemed the venture unpassable. But he knew that whatever he faced, there was an end to it… and therefore it MUST be navigable.
And so on May 24 1869, with supplies to last them 10 months, Powell embarked with an expedition of 10 men in 4 boats into “The Great Unknown”.
While what occurred the next three months is hailed as one of the greatest achievements of American exploration, and while they successfully emerged from the chasm 930 miles to the south, bedraggled, starving, and having lost a few men to desertion… the point of this story is not to detail the ins-and-outs of what happened on the expedition.
To me… the most important part about this is not the achievement itself, but the mindset that made it happen.
When people for centuries simply said it couldn’t be done, Powell instead said it MUST be done. If the river went into it, he reasoned, and if the river came out of it… there MUST be a way.
Which to me is the secret to doing, achieving, and even becoming… the impossible.
Instead of thinking something..
Should… could… or might…
What if you looked at obstacles with the eye of… something MUST be done?
How would your challenges change if you simply said, this MUST be overcome?
What arguments and excuses would cease to exist… if the thing MUST be done?
When something MUST be done, it changes the way we look at ourselves, and the rest of the world.
Today, you can find Wesley Powell’s name sprinkled throughout the American Southwest.
There’s Powell plateau overlooking the Grand Canyon, Powell Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, and even Lake Powell… the 2nd largest reservoir in the US with more coastline than from San Diego to Seattle.
But more than anything…
John Wesley Powell left behind something far more valuable than any mountain, plateau, or lake bearing his name.
He left us a mindset. A mindset that says… when the river flows in and the river flows out… there MUST be a way through.
So this week, when you face your own Great Unknown…
Stop asking if it CAN be done.
Start asking what MUST be done.
And then push off from shore.
Christian
CHRISTIAN HANSEN has gone behind the scenes in some of the biggest organizations in the world to find out the reasons why some people get chosen and why others don’t. As the #1 bestselling and LinkedIn Top Ten ranked author of “The Influence Mindset: The Art & Science of Getting People to Choose You” Christian helps teams and organizations who want to stand out and be the obvious choice. With degrees from Brigham Young University and The London School of Economics, he’s helped thousands of individuals position and sell themselves. A fan of international communication, history, and choral music, he currently lives in Utah with his family. Reach him at: TheChristianHansen.com
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