Eliezer Yudkowsky’s Use the Try Harder, Luke — is a short funny story about how we’re conditioned for giving up fast, after (also hastily) labeling something as impossible.

This continues with a longer piece On Doing the Impossible

To do things that are very difficult or “impossible”,
First you have to not run away. That takes seconds.
Then you have to work. That takes hours.
Then you have to stick at it. That takes years.