—Eleanor Roosevelt
“What am I going to be when I grow old?”
Do you remember how many times you asked yourself that question when you were a kid? I bet you did a lot, we all did. But now that you are a grown up, and you have some decisions to make, do you remember what you used to answer?
The thing is, when we were kids, we knew nothing about life. We all thought of being astronauts, professional football players, singers, actors—as if it were that easy. We never thought that one day we would have to worry about bills, scholarships, politics, public transportation, loans—. Nobody told us life was going to turn this way.
Now, that you are an adult and have the responsibility of being “realistic” to have some chances on this world. Now, that past generations convinced you that dreaming is not only childish, but also dangerous, as if your life was something to be controlled; to be held back.
Now that you are a grown up, what are you gonna do?
I have had the pleasure of meeting a lot of people currently struggling with this dilemma, and the most common answers always oscillate between “it’s impossible” and “I have to eat”.
I agree with both statements.
You see, the world we live in right now belongs to those brave enough to take an impossible dream and make it possible. Yes, we need to survive in the meanwhile, we need to go with the flow, as if we had no more options. We need to struggle with the dreams and the reality at the same time until one of them seems unacceptable; so tiring that we would be willing to trade it for something else.
At that point, if you are one of the lucky ones, you will give up on reality, and give yourself to your dreams.
You will take the risk, you will give your all. You will not settle for what life throws at you. You will not settle for the easiest path; you will take the risk, and create a path you can follow.
A path that leads to the destiny you already decided, probably when you were a kid, a fearless kid.
Fear, my friend, is the only thing keeping you there in the same place. Fear is the only thing standing between who you are right now and who you really want to be.
You have a choice. You can choose not to be afraid of the uncertainty of your actions, and instead look at the future as a blank page on which you can write the most amazing story in the world.
You have a choice. Whatever is in your head are your options, you can choose to stay in the same place, but in that case you have to commit to the idea of not blaming anyone when your life turn out to be not satisfactory enough. But you can also choose to move on, to create, to take the risk of living this life in a way only you can live it.
You can choose greatness.
But greatness, as you might already know, is an achievement that requires sweat, tears, and to work even harder than you have ever worked in your life. The greatness that lies ahead in the future, is for those not only willing to taking the risk, but for those willing to keep going even when things get rough.
The world is for those not only capable of accomplishing the tasks, but for those who persevere long enough to see their dreams come true.
Time. The problem is always time.
We are so used to being so impatient, that the sole idea of spending years on creating our own lives sounds terrifying, overwhelming—exhausting. We want our goals to be at our fingertips and to become wealthy on a month or two. That doesn’t work that way.
In order for the dream to come true, some hard work have to be done, and some time need to be invested. But the most important thing is; each and everyone of you have to decide whether to follow a path of your own creation, or to walk over someone else’s path, and work for that the rest of your life.
There are no shortcuts, there are no easy ways to reach the top. There are no secrets, no magic tricks, no irreplaceable advice someone could give you. It’s only you. And all you need to do is to know yourself well enough to take the right decision, but that is, actually, another story.
We are all born to do great things, did you know that? We all came to this world with the ability to create a world on our own. The problem is—we are raised to be small, to be afraid and to doubt ourselves, to see the greatness as something so far away that almost look like from another planet. Our parents raised us to follow rules, to accept standards, to block imagination to the point we forget that that’s where the great ideas come from.
We learn, through the years, to look up at the sky and see nothing more than a blue space and some clouds that probably are gonna rain on us. We put on some blinding glasses, and avoid looking at the possibilities. We decide to stay where is comfortable, where is safe, and just follow the line that others have prepared for us.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can change the course, you can choose your battles. You can be the best version of yourself, and only you know which one is the best.
Don’t listen to those telling you that anything out of the ordinary is impossible. Don’t allow them to put doubts in your head. Don’t ever let them make you feel like you can’t do it because, my friend, the kid in you knows you can do it.
Now, that you are an adult, and you have a choice to make, what will you do?
I recommend you to start walking…
Because you have some dreams to follow.