Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.

The line urges deliberate overreaching: by aiming beyond what seems feasible, an artist or craftsperson forces new solutions, discovers latent capacities, and raises the standard of the finished work. “Attempt the impossible” functions less as literal instruction than as a creative discipline—setting goals that strain technique and imagination so that even partial success yields improvement. Attributed to Bette Davis, the sentiment aligns with a performer’s ethos of risk-taking and continual refinement, suggesting that safe, easily achievable aims tend to reproduce existing habits, while ambitious challenges generate growth and originality.