Be All of Yourselves

How many times have you asked a little kid, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

The answers range from cowboy to fire fighter to astronaut to princess to singer to…

All are worthy aspirations and some of them even come true. But, why do we expect to get a single, definitive response? I’ve been many things in my 60+ years – a sailor, a park ranger, a marketer, a writer, a wife, a mother. I’ve often been some of those things simultaneously.

There’s a reason why college students aren’t asked to choose a major until their junior year, until they’re 20 years old. Most of us need all that time to try on different hats, to see what fits the best. Or to see how many fit at all. You don’t have to limit yourself. Even brain surgeons play golf and I’m sure many of them harbor fantasies of teeing off at the Masters. We are each so much more than the one word, more than the one job most often used to describe us.

Don’t just be yourself. Be all of yourselves.