It’s described as ‘ambition’ and then ‘aspiration’ as we start to grow up, but that’s just a less emotive way of us saying ‘I dream of being a…’.
When we’re young, we haven’t learned to be self-limiting; so when a child says they want to be an astronaut, a footballer or a doctor, who but the cruelest and callous of adults would consider ridiculing them for expressing such thoughts?
Yet this is precisely what happens as we start to mature, often resulting in false, self-limiting beliefs. And then we begin to compromise on our goals. All but the strongest settle for an alternative.
Sir Ken Robinson tells the story of a 6-year old who had decided to draw a picture of God in a school classroom art session.
“But no one knows what God looks like” said the teacher; to which the child replied “Well they will in a minute.”
Everything and anything is possible to a child, and a good coach can reconnect you to the 6-year old that’s still alive and well within you. As is the 12 and 18-year old.
For a while, whilst my age was still measured in single digits, along with being a footballer and a pilot, I fancied the idea of being a knitting pattern model. My mother was an obsessive knitter and the photographs on her pattern covers were rather enthralling. The lifestyle would suit me, I thought: posing on a beach, flying a kite – in a matching jumper to the man in the picture, who was supposed to be my father – seemed like quite a good alternative to having to go to school.
But no doubt something would have prompted me to regard this as unthinkable; and thankfully, I don’t remember any trauma associated with this not coming to pass. (Better to let go of that, than to give up on my dreams to play football and learn to fly, I perhaps negotiated with my young self.)
The waiting list for my coaching services and details of my coaching content, including how to download my free eBook on the benefits of coaching for creatives, awaits you here:
www.soundproducer.com.au/coaching
Joining my waiting list is a non-committal way to receive more details and to arrange a 1-to-1 Zoom call to discuss your own needs.
[Pictured: the future James Bond, Roger Moore, as a knitting pattern model. Many years after I first imagined a glamorous kite-flying life on camera, I learned that Mr. Moore, considerably senior to me, and somewhat randomly, moved to my home town of Sutton Coldfield. Who knows what could have happened if I’d held fast to my dream and we’d teamed-up as a father and son duo? 007.1?]
