#14
If you’ve ever watched Back to the Future, this is the kind of scenario I’m talking about.
Imagine you got to meet your parents before they became your parents.
In that first chat with them, you will get a glimpse of their:
dreams
passions
talents
habits
secrets?
The society we live in has somewhat conditioned us to believe that we must sacrifice who we are when we become parents, or whenever a big change occurs in our life. But we often let go of precisely the things that make us who we are, instead of the things that anchor us back to the past and stand in the way of our growth.
For example, a father is told to “grow up” and become more responsible, but in the process he might completely give up on the carefree spirit that would connect him more with his children. And a mother might give up on her dreams in order to look after the tiny ones at home. But the pursuit of a dream can actually give you extraordinary energy to both look after yourself and others.
If you could meet your parents when they were 18 years old, what would you say to them?
I doubt you’ll lead with the bad things. My guess is you’ll encourage them to be more of their authentic self once you get to experience that.
What I’d say to my parents is “Remember who you are”, that’s more than just a set of labels.
I’d also tell them “Remember your dreams”.
We get our dreams for a reason, but the choice to contemplate or pursue them is entirely up to us. It is when we start to believe in our dreams that we can turn them into goals, which then become milestones, which in turn will one day take us to the complete reality of our dreams. When that happens, we can safely say we’ve achieved our full potential (until we discover the next dream!).
