Adults are allowed to dream too, no?

Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash

The other day my mother sent me photos of me as a child - to prove to me how much my daughter looks like me. I looked in the mirror. I searched for that child who was once me. I asked myself: What would I tell her?

We tell our children to wish for the stars. To believe in magic. That they can do anything they put their mind to, within reason - as we teach them that they should not try to fly since their body is not built for that and they would smash to the ground.

But as for their other aspirations - that can range from learning how to do a cartwheel, to learning how to whistle or spell a word - we see them try… very hard (no matter how scared we are that they might fail… and smash to the ground). We push them through that fear. And when we see them manage, we applaud them. And when they fail, we encourage them to try again and we help them.

But when it comes to ourselves, it’s a very different conversation. We try to make our dreams fit into “reality”. And our adult version of reality is much more stringent and unforgiving. We give up before we even try. We tell ourselves: ‘you’re too old to learn this or start that’. We accept that, as grown ups, we’re done. That’s it. The magic has gone.

But wait.

“As we grow older our dreams tend to become smaller anyway. It might no longer be a dream of becoming an astronaut, but it could be about travelling more.”

Then we look around us and see others - adults - following their dreams, opening their business, changing career path, rekindling a long-lost hobby. Yet still we dampen it by remaining in awe of their success and telling ourselves we would never manage to do it because of commitments, age, health, money and so on.

OK - I get it. When you are an adult you can’t just quit your job and try another one - just like a kid quits ballet or football to try jazz or table tennis. But there must be the adult way of getting there. The adult way of dreaming and following those dreams.

Let’s face it, as we grow older our dreams tend to become smaller anyway. It might no longer be a dream of becoming an astronaut, but it could be about travelling more. It might not be about becoming a ballerina, but it could be about going to dance classes or simply going dancing with friends.

So, while it’s good to have our feet rooted to the ground etc etc and understand that some dreams are not possible due to various factors that could include our very own biology (just in the same way that children can’t fly) it’s also possible to dream a little and, with the right frame of mind and support (even our kids have it), yes, even adults can make those dreams come true.