When I grow up

Last night at dinner Ron, Robbie and I were having a conversation about 'what do I want to be when I grow up'.  It started with a 'water cooler' chat Ron had with a colleague about Robbie's summer architecture intern job search and moved to our dreams as children (Hannah's has moved from being a princess, a role that is has few open opportunities to being a pop star).  His colleagues son is currently going to be a soccer playing Navy Seal.

This conversation occurred independent of a conversation I had with my friend at lunch yesterday about 'what would I do if I had a choice?'  Her response, 'work with people', my response 'facilitate education in a non educational format' like TEDX.  What stops us from pursuing these dreams? It isn't like we want to be princesses, pop stars or Navy Seals.

This has me pondering the question, 'at what age do we stop believing we can be what ever we want to be' and start limiting our options?  I understand that there are certain physical and educational limiters (we can't all be Blue Angels or Victoria Secret Angels), but there are so many opportunities out there that require transferable skills--what is stopping us?

Erickson has stages of development and around age 35 we hit a stage (according to him) that is generativity versus self absorption or stagnation.  We are either incredibly productive, at our peak, or we are prone to stagnate.  Is this when we decide that we can't pursue our dreams to be an astronaut, firefighting pilot?

Today is the day to start executing on the dreams of 'what I will be when I grow up'