When You Grow Up

Remember being a kid and hearing the familiar phrase “you can be whatever you want to be when you grow up.” I’m sure we can all recall hearing this and if you’re a parent, saying it to your own kids. Within reason, I believe this whole heartedly (and I only say within reason because sometimes there are extreme circumstances in which physical limitations to what someone can achieve). For me there are two problems with this age old statement: how many of us truly believe this and how many of us are actually living this?

When we are kids the world is full of possibility. We can be whatever we want! We read books, hear stories and watch shows and movies about these jobs, places, and relationships that interest and excite us and think that’s what I want! And our teachers and parents tell us you can do that if you set your mind to it. But then we grow up and no one has taught us what needs to be done to actually achieve that goal and no one shows us that it’s actually possible. All that has been done is we have been told we can achieve it, and that was the end of that. No lesson, no example, no follow up. No wonder we have so many people settling in life. Settling in their relationships, jobs, health, and life.

Let me paint your a picture. A child shows interest in becoming something great. And like all of us their parents tell them you can do that when you grow up! Then the child proceeds to see their parents get home from jobs they’re not happy at, argue about money and whatever else issues they have in their relationship, pick up fast food for dinner and sit on the couch complaining about their health. Why on earth would that child truly believe they can achieve anything in life when the examples they have are not achieving what they set out to do? “We are what we see. We are the products of our surroundings.” - Amber Valletta

You see the problem here? We tell our kids they can do anything and we don’t truly believe it because we are stuck in our own lives. We think it’s nice for them to dream before life kicks them and beats them down like it did to us. But it doesn’t need to be that way. There are shining examples in every career and relationship of people who worked from nothing and got what they wanted. We need to show our kids and ourselves what is possible.

You don’t have to go out and become a multimillionaire or have a private jet or a job as a big time CEO to make your kids believe that anything is possible. If your relationships need work (which they ALL do), talk to a therapist, read a book, listen to a podcast, start communicating, and if the other person won’t do their part then move on because it is impossible to change someone else. If your health isn’t good, starting eating better and start exercising. If you dread your job, dust off your resume, jump on a job site, network with people in your field, learn a new skill and find a new job.

All of these things aren’t difficult to understand or execute, it just takes awareness of yourself and situation and motivation to embrace the change and set the example that you can truly do anything you set your mind to. If our kids see happy parents, family members and educators who are constantly working on being a better version of themselves, not perfect, just better, then they will truly believe and SEE that they can be anything they want to when they grow up.

There is still time for you to fulfill your dreams. Your dreams have probably changed since your childhood, and maybe now you have these new, better dreams, things that feel so far away you can never reach them. But there’s still time. Block out the doubters and the haters, block out whatever lies you’re telling yourself as to why you can’t do it. If you’re still breathing there is time to better yourself, keep working and achieve whatever it is you want to, as long as you’re ready to work for it.