Where could your dreams take you?

“What you’re longing to bring into the world is also what the world is longing for you to bring in.”  Brianna Wiest, from the book The Pivot Year

By Sherrie Frank

This past weekend I took my granddaughter Edie to a rock-climbing competition. While driving we listened to The Moth podcast. Edie chose an episode about strong women, and one of the storytellers was Betty Ried-Soskin, a 97-year-old wonder woman. What struck me about Betty is she started a new career as a park ranger at the age of 85. She is known as a wonderful storyteller and spends many days in the amphitheater of her park, talking about the history of the region. Isn’t that just the coolest thing?

As I listened to her story I was reminded of a time around 40 when I thought about going back to school and then decided not to. I thought the cost benefits did not add up and I had a lot of people telling me it wasn’t necessary for my success. It never occurred to me that things like happiness, growth, and fulfillment could be legitimate reasons for going back to school or making a job change.

Like in my story, a lack of awareness may be one reason we don’t seek out change or pay attention to a call for something new in our lives. Another reason is we may let the beliefs of other people who worry over our choices or think we are being unreasonable or overly confident stop us. Or we may listen to the naysayers who are quick to point out our shortcomings or tell us we aren’t right for the job or don’t fit the profile of someone who is. We may blame them later for our missed opportunity and unhappiness or learn the truth that we live with the results of our choices, even the ones we based on someone else’s limited thinking or misguided opinion of us.

I am learning that our beliefs about time, worth, and age are just constructs of the mind that we can be aware of and change if we want to. When we are young, this may look like us taking hold of the knowledge that we are the creative force in our lives and seeking to learn how to use our power with intention. As we age, we can choose to remain young at heart and continue to fill our mind with beautiful possibilities and unreasonable dreams until we take our last breath.

There does not have to be a problem to fix for us to seek out new adventures. As humans, our happy places are in learning and growth. So today, I invite you to join me in being enraptured by the infinite seeds of potential within us and in each moment and to dream to your heart’s desires. Yes.

Xo -s

Listen to Betty’s episode on The Moth

Sherrie Frank facilitates CrossOver, the second workshop in The Learning Well’s core growth series.