Did you say “I want to be a firefighter when I grow up”?
Seems pretty exciting. Going into burning buildings. Being the hero who rescues the little old lady, a baby, or a dog. Driving big fire trucks around and operating water-pumping equipment. Being in charge within a crisis, making decisions and taking action.
Well I didn’t want to be a firefighter. It’s a little embarrassing to admit but I wanted to be a bus driver.
Yes, it seems kind of strange for a kid to want that. To just haul people around, deal with annoying passengers and getting stuck in traffic.
To me it was more than that. It was working on a schedule, following a route, being on time. I felt the challenge was to get everyone to their destination safely. Driving a large vehicle sounded pretty fun too. In later years I even considered converting a school bus into a motor home.
One of the things we do in the Personal Retreat is to look back in the past. Look back and review some of the dreams we had, who we pretended to be.
Sometimes we go back a few years to college. Thinking about some of the majors that you didn’t take up. Maybe your friend was taking some really interesting classes which made you consider a transfer.
Tripping on back to high school, we might think about career day or taking those exams to see what might be a good fit for you as a working adult. Maybe even you remember you first job that had something about it you enjoyed.
I think going back – way back to when you were a child is one of the best things of all.
We still have that little child within us, full of wonder and excitement about the world. Using our amazing imaginations to create stories about things we couldn’t possibly know. That child is still there and so are all those dreams.
Let’s be honest though, why were those jobs so exciting? What about them did that little, excited, wondrous version of you find so compelling? This is an important part of the exercise in the Personal Retreat. Determining what qualities attracted you to those careers, jobs or characters could form the foundation of a new direction.
Linking those qualities with a new direction can get that little child within you on board with the work to make change happen. We sure need that motivation because our stuck-in-the-mud adult self might be throwing up plenty of challenges.
It might not seem likely you will get into the astronaut program at age 55, or take up a career in medicine if you’re already halfway through your working life. Don’t sell yourself short though. If you can reach back and find that excitement, you just might find the motivation to start a big change.
Please comment and let me know what you wanted to be when you grew up!