Whenever I was really struggling with my studies at university, and feeling a tad overwhelmed, one of the ways I used to get myself back on track mentally was to remind myself that what I was doing was not rocket science. I was not pushing the boundaries of human thought. What I had to do, and what I had to understand, had been done and understood by someone before. It was possible.
Knowing that something is possible is half the battle.
But the exciting bit will be once you have a real grasp of everything that has been done and you are pushing the envelope a little further. To do that you have to get a little dirty. In 'Creativity', Mihaly C. talks with 100s of really Creative people, and argues that in order to really create something that matters, first you have to really get to know the domain thoroughly. That takes a lot of patience, since of often we want to be at the edge before we have a good understanding of what has come before. Similar to Gladwell's 10000 hour rule.
Then, maybe not knowing if it is possible is half the fun.
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