What I Want(ed) To Be When I Grow Up

You would think or expect that by the age of 53 I would have known by now what I want to be.

This is not so. When we are children, our parents know everything. When we’re teenagers, our parents know nothing. When we are in our 20’s, we know everything. As we evolve into our thirties and forties we begin to realize that although our knowledge and experience increases, there is so much to know that we recognize that we will never know everything, not even close .

I was not one of those people who had a dream to be a doctor or a fireman. I had no idea what I wanted to be until my late teenage years when I knew I wanted to be a Mother. That is the only ambition I can say truly consumed me. I definitely met my objective on that one by producing three beautiful sons.

When it was time to return to the work force, I took computer courses to prepare myself. Not having a degree and needing the income I began work shortly thereafter. I’ve had a very good career however I still didn’t know what I wanted to be. I was and continue to be an opportunist. When I see a position or an opportunity; I go after it and this strategy or lack thereof has served me well.

Now with my next phase of my life fast approaching, the opportunity to be a life coach is finally what all this has been leading up to.

This is what I want to be but I probably won’t grow up. You can grow up too much and take yourself entirely too seriously. You have to be prepared to risk and to fail along the way.

The reason I am sharing this with you, I know many of you are in jobs that are not your hearts desire. It may be that your life has something to teach you and that the experience you build by doing these jobs will lead you to your ultimate goal or maybe you’ll change your goal. Don’t be surprised that you end up in a different place. We can’t know what we don’t know until we do. Think about that for a moment. Our lives are like a series of books and you only have read book 3 of 6.

Only you can make your dreams happen. I didn’t say it was easy but when has anything easy been truly meaningful.

“Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional”

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