You can reinvent. You can become who you want. You can do whatever you want.
Some people are satisfied and have no reason to change. Some love to evolve and change. Some idolize those that can change. Some need to change.
Learn. Grow. Evolve.
Don’t let your past define you. It was just a chapter in a book. A chapter rarely defines a whole novel.
Don’t let your age limit you. Grandma Moses began painting at the age of 78 years old. She sold her first painting at age 79. They now sell for over a million dollars each. What if she had said at 78, “I’m too old, I shouldn’t paint.”? Your evolution is not limited to a time period.
Don’t let rejection curtail you. Colonel Sanders’ recipe was rejected 1,009 times before being accepted. Before then he was in the army, a railway laborer, a law student, a ferry boat owner, a restaurant owner and a motel owner. He had sold insurance, gas and tires. At age 66 he was broke and living off of social security. He hit the road and began selling his secret recipe. When he died at age 90 there were 6,000 KFC stores in 48 countries. Your evolution is not limited to what you do for a job that pays you.
Don’t let your passions go unwritten. Laura Ingalls Wilder published her first novel at age 65. If she hadn’t started writing there are those of us who would never have known the magic of the Little House on the Prairie. Your evolution is not limited to your career.
Don’t let your desire for more go to the graveyard with you. If Ray Kroc hadn’t leased a restaurant when he was 53 years old, and decided to buy it when he was 60 years old, I’m not sure any of us would be the same. Who has not eaten at or heard of McDonald’s? It is iconic. It has provided teenagers with their first job experience and people with affordable burgers and fries, especially when you’re on a long road trip. And if you’re from a little town called Sterling, Illinois, it may just have been the only place for a teen to go on a Saturday night in the 80’s. But more than that, it’s a lesson in real estate development. Your evolution may end up being greater than you could have imagined.
It’s a big world and what you need or want may not be in your backyard. Your evolution is not limited to your current surroundings.
You might need to brush up on skills, or learn new ones.
You might need to find yourself.
You might need to move far away.
You might not know how or what or where to even start.
But if you never try, you’ll never know. If you don’t begin, you will never evolve.
Fifteen years ago I looked around and couldn’t imagine doing what I was doing as an older version of myself. With a limited mindset I thought that my options too were limited.
I was wrong. But something I read gave me the courage to start. Maybe this is you today. Maybe reading this will also give you the courage you need to simply start.
People may not understand your need to change. My people didn’t understand mine. But it’s not their journey. Only you need to understand it.
It may not be a glorious, fluid leap from your old life into the new one. It may be rocky and ugly. There may not be a well-defined path. Instead, if you’re lucky, there may be stepping stones leading the way. If you’re not lucky, you may have to make your own path. It’s ok, the result has nothing to do with luck but rather, with your endurance.
You will have to walk uphill. Keep going.
You won’t be able to see the end. Keep going.
Things will happen to block your way. Keep going.
Your mind will try to take control. It will lie to you. It will tell you that you’re not good enough. It will tell you that you can’t. Keep going.
You will be on the verge of losing your faith. Keep going.
The sun in fact is just over the horizon.
Do you believe?
When you reach the top and look back then you’ll understand that you had to climb up the mountain in order to see the view. But most importantly, you will be grateful you believed what you couldn’t yet see.
Gratitude. For the journey that almost broke you. But didn’t.
