When I Grow Up...

One of my favorite commercials was an ad for Monster.com.
It showed fresh-faced kids looking into the camera and
sharing their dreams for the future. We're accustomed to
kids saying they want to be a doctor, or an astronaut, or a
ballerina, but instead these kids said, "When I grow up, I
want to be a brown nose," and "When I grow up, I want to be
in middle management" and "When I grow up, I want to be a
yes-man."

The kids are so cute and their answers are so absurd you
can't help but laugh. But looking at your own life, can
you still laugh? Or are you on the verge of crying,
because you are stuck in middle management, you have a
brown nose, and you are definitely a yes-man (or woman).

Kids have a distinct advantage over most adults: they are
free to dream. If a 10 year old says "I want to be a
doctor," everyone smiles and says "You can do it. You can
be anything you want to be." If a 40 year old mother of
three says "I want to be a doctor," most of the people
around her will likely say "Go back to school at your age?
Where will you find the money? Do you have any idea how
long that will take?" What's wrong with that picture?

Who put an age limit on dreams? When are you suppose to
stop pursuing your dreams and start "acting like an adult?"
Its sad that society's definition of acting like an adult
often means jumping into the mainstream, doing what
everyone else does and not rocking the boat. You get a
"good job," you bring in a steady pay check and you never
ever EVER do anything risky like start your own business or
quit the "good job" you hate, or go back to school to start
a new career.

I am particularly fond of a quote by Mark Twain. He says,
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the
things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. Sail
away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in our sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover."

Ask you inner child what he or she wants to be when they
grow up. I dare you.