When I Grow Up

When you were asked what you wanted to be when you grew up, what did you say? Is that what you do today? Did you have a title or an image of what that was like ‘a fireman’, or ‘a teacher’ or ‘ the president’? A friend of mine wanted to be a snake – and only eat bad people! I’ll bet you didn’t say I wanted to be an empowering and empathic person in my community, or I want to be super-mom or super-dad, or I want to have the highest performing team. As kids, we think in visuals that we see around us – it is hard to see ‘empowering and empathetic’ or ‘parenting and time-management skills’ or ‘teambuilding skills’.

As we grew into mature adults, we began to see the world differently and set out parameters for our behavior and our skills. Sometimes we limited ourselves believing in what we could or could not accomplish.

Mahatma Ghandi said “A man is but a product of his own thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”


I look at my children and see that they live this philosophy so much better than I did. They are focused on career plans that include leadership ability and skills, as well as physical talent and mental aptitude. They see they can be anything they want without limitations that they put on themselves – this can even be called a dream. But it is not, it is their own belief – what they will become with focus, hard-work and dedication. And I believe they will, because they believe it.