Milestones and roadblocks
When I grow up my job is going to be a giant,
not the eating kind,
the kind that catches kids that are falling into the sea maybe
and puts them back on land.
Jack, 5yrs old
from Room, a book by Emma Donaghue
People draw an invisible line around their lives. Everything inside the line is the real world, the possible world and the likely world. Everything outside the line is just dreaming.
We avoid doing things that we suppose can’t be done. I’m not talking about trying to fly by jumping off the roof or expectantly wearing a tin foil hat to talk with aliens. I mean all the what-ifs, buts, hurdles and fears of failure that we put between us and a really interesting, kind of cool life.
At what point do we stop dreaming about what we want to do and decide that this is what life is and all it ever will be? A more important question is, do we ever ask ourselves why?
Sometimes we imagine other people are stopping us. They can’t live without us. They will never support us. The power other people have is mostly a tool of our own imagination. Have you ever asked them what they think? Does their opinion matter more than it should?
Sometimes it looks like there are too many roadblocks in the way. Too many opportunities for failure. Well, there are always lot of hurdles on the way to a dream. These are milestones, not roadblocks.
I think maybe we perceive them as roadblocks because our minds put them there for a good reason. They are not between you and destiny at all. They are between you and the words buried deep inside that say ‘I am not good enough. I don’t deserve it. It won’t work, because it’s me.’ Those words are too hard to listen to and confront. It’s much easier to project failure onto someone else or onto a difficult, impossible world.
I know my quote today is silly. You can’t become a friendly sea giant any more than you can talk to aliens through alfoil.
But just for a moment, pretend you have no limits. What do you want? What would it take to get there?
Muchness 
The hard bit, for me at least, isn't "What would it take to get there" – it's "What do you want". I guess one of these days I'll know what I wanna be I grow up, but I suspect that I'll be ded by then :))))
I totally understand. I've always envied people who know what they want to do. I've always been a bit of an aimless drifter. I'm happy to make decisions based on what's at hand and whether it looks like a grand new adventure. It's led me to some interesting places.Yet, part of why I'm like that that is this drawing of lines around what's 'worthy' or 'possible'. There's heaps of stuff I want to do but I never really accomplish any of it properly because I dismiss it before I begin. Sure I could do it, but is it REALLY what I want to do and therefore can I be bothered to push through the roadblocks to success? Then I end up accomplishing nothing and more time has passed.I think maybe it's better to just decide on something and, even if you change your mind later, at least you have experience to lend to your new adventure.