Exaggerating the barrier between who I am and who I want to be…

That was the tagline on my son's handle this morning in my instant messenger program... (yes, my son is on my 'friends list'):

"Exaggerating the barrier between who I am and who I want to be"

It made me smile. I did a quick search on Google but couldnt find the source of the quote, so I asked him if he came up with that one on his own. This one is a line from song lyrics (Note to Self, by From First to Last), though he has a way of coming up with things like this that always grab my attention.

This particular quote put me in mind of the Think and Grow Rich concept, or the law of attraction. While I've never made it required reading (which I have seriously considered, lol), I have been known to teach my children things like: fake it till you feel it, expect the best, if its what you want then you need to *make* it happen, etc. (nothing to do with the song, by the way)

Of course its natural for children, particularly teenagers, to explore their boundaries and test their limits. Naiviety can actually be a powerful thing, when you dont know the risks involved or you dont have enough life experience to make you second-guess your options.

As adults, it can be much more difficult to push the boundaries and 'exaggerate the barriers'. But that is exactly what we have to do when we decide we want more out of life, or we want to make changes to our current status.

The older we get, the more comfortable routines can be. Change and risk are usually forced instead of sought out... and anything 'out of the norm' is often frowned upon by the people we are closest to. It takes a strong character to take deliberate action towards change and improvement.

Children and young adults can be very inspiring. Unfortunately, their enthusiasm and creative ideas can often be stifled by higher-ups (parents included) and mistaken for lack of maturity or being 'wet behind the ears' so to speak. Personally I think we can learn a lot from children, and specifically how they view options and opportunities...

And yes - people who know us think it's odd that we chat via Instant Messenger, but with a 15 year old I think that a parent should be happy for any open line of communication - even if you are only in the next room. Teenage boys dont come out of their rooms much you know... 😉

Best,