"Baby, You Can Be Whatever You Want to Be"

Remember that line? “You can be anything you want to be!”

I loved being told that as a kid. I genuinely believed that. I truly understood in my heart that if I could dream it, it could happen.

I always thought to myself, “If they can do it, I can do it!” I would look around and see other people’s successes and think, “How hard can it be?!” If another person can realize this type of success, then so can I!”

Well, like every situation in life, my dreaming, wishing, and hoping didn’t make my success appear. My prayers without action did not make my dreams come true.

I think, that there should be a second part to that statement above. I think we should tell our kids, “You can be anything you want to be if you’re willing to do what it takes to get there.”

Ugh! That’s a harsh reality, isn’t it?! That doesn’t make you want to go out and be an astronaut or create the most successful company in the world or invent something life-changing! That all sounds really hard now!! But the cold, hard truth is, no one can be whatever they want to be unless they try to be that thing.

Being successful and accomplishing your dreams takes grit. It takes a lot of work, a lot of knowledge, learning, sacrifice, and some good old-fashioned blood, sweat, and tears.

The dream is where success starts but it actually happens in the actions that are taken to make it a reality.

While I want to give my kids all the confidence in the world, I also want to be clear and honest with them. I truly believe they can be ANYTHING they want to be IF they are willing to do what it takes to make it happen. Both of my sons want to be engineers. I think they could absolutely make this a reality in their lives. But, I do not sugarcoat the reality of hard work to them. Engineering takes skill, hard work, competition, math skills, the desire to learn, and the grit to stick with it. Being lazy, getting bad grades, not trying at school, and not caring to improve would not serve these two kids well. If they are allowed to be that way now, what would change the way they are in the future?! The answer is nothing.

Yes, my kids are young but they need to learn good habits and skills now that they can carry through their entire lives so that they stand a chance of actually realizing those big dreams.

Sometimes, I feel like I am being a little harsh with my kids. Everyone wants their kids to feel like they can accomplish anything and everything but to me, without a little dose of reality sprinkled on top of that dream, it could quickly turn into something that was just a wish when they were little.

Dreams can come true if you’re willing to do what it takes to make them happen. Share that with your kids today and tell them you want them to know that because you believe in them and you love them and you KNOW they are going to do big things.

Love,
Amanda