If I think back to my time at school my teachers and parents and aunts and uncles all used to ask the same question: Andy, what do you want to be when you grow up? And I’m like 9?
I’ve got literally no idea. I dunno? An astronaut? Or maybe if I can’t be that, a window cleaner? [modern kids say gamer or YouTuber btw]
What do you want to be when you grow up is a lame question. It feels a little lazy
I prefer a tweaked version of the same question, which is much more powerful
What kind of person do you want to be when you grow up?
I knew the answer to that at age 9, and 15, and 37 and 55 and I still will at age 95 and three quarters
For me, it’s deadly simple: I want to be the best me I can be
I’m guessing your answer will be similar. You want to be a nice person – kind, loving, positive, optimistic, honest, good, grateful, optimistic, friendly, happy…
But there’s one more word that is super-important. I’ll get to it via a little story’s I wrote called Real or Fake…
Here’s a snippet:
Jake wrote a list called real or fake, and it went something like this
Orange flavour, or an actual orange?
Freshly ground coffee or instant?
My Whippy or Ben & Jerrys
A postcard or the actual holiday
Fake lashes or real?
Blackpool Tower or the Eiffel Tower
A trip to see Santa in Lapland or at the local department store? (obviously, if you’re under 10, they’re both real)
Astroturf or lush Wembley grass
A counterfeit £50 note, or an actual £50 note?
A fake smile or a heartfelt grin?
….
There’s more but I’m hoping the penny is beginning to drop
Okay, it’s not totally clear cut. Fake lashes and nails… they might be better than the original but generally speaking, the real thing is nearly always better than the cheaper or fake alternative
Think about it… I’ll give you the real Mona Lisa to hang on your bedroom wall, or a £10 print off the internet
Real or fake?
The difference is priceless!
My point… there are a lot of things that you can fake in life
In fact, you can almost fake life itself
Which brings me back to the original question: What kind of person do you want to be when you grow up?
I want to be real. I want to be authentically me
It’s easy to live a pale imitation of yourself. It’s easy to be average. It’s easy to grumble. It’s easy to make excuses as to why your life hasn’t turned out quite as you hoped
It’s easy to settle for ‘fine’
Which is fine if ‘fine’ is what you want. But if you want to raise the bar to world-class, if you want to take life by storm, that means no more fakery. No more pale imitation. No more meh. No more settling for ‘that’ll do’. No more excuses…