Endless Possibilities

July 16, 2012

Last week, my friend Christina blogged about the birth of her new niece. This part of her post really made me have a little “aha moment” I needed:

Speaking of life… my niece was born. She’s one of those seriously beautiful babies that you can’t stop looking at. Dark hair, dark eyes, perfect skin. So sweet.

Anyway, today when I stopped in the hospital to see her, my brother (the baby is his daughter), says to the baby, in a joking way, “sorry we brought you into this world. now you’ll have to grow up and go to school and get a job and all those things.”

“No,” I said. “Look at how beautiful she is. All she has to do is grow up and move to Hollywood. She’s going to be a movie star.”

Or she could live on the beach, or Paris, or outer space. She can be a rock star, a secret agent, or the president. So many possibilities lay before her, on this first day of her entire life. It’s amazing, really.

And then later I realized, this is the first day of the rest of my life, too.

I’ve been in a bit of transition this year. In February I quit my corporate marketing job and have been doing social media for clients. I work from home, have a much more flexible schedule, and have to manage myself and hope that I get paid. I’m risk-averse, and this is frightening, but it has also allowed my body to get a lot of much-needed rest, and to lower my anxiety levels quite a bit. For the first time since I bit the self-employed bullet, I’ve had a client opening and it means that I’m a little unnerved. This type of unease typically throws me into chaos (as mentioned a couple of weeks ago) and it’s really not pleasant. I say all sorts of negative things to myself and magnify every slip-up while diminishing every success.


After reading Christina’s post, I realized that we each make choices and have the power to be and do so many things! We might not have as many options as the sweet baby girl does as some of our path has already been dictated by our past decisions, but there is a huge amount of potential we all have inside ourselves to do crazy, wonderful things. Even now, things I thought I wanted 10, even 5 years ago, are different.

Things don’t always go the way we planned, but perhaps they’re not meant to. Let’s dream a little bigger and make it the first day of the rest of our lives.

Along these lines, I started a list of things that I have told myself I couldn’t do because “people” don’t think I can, or wouldn’t expect it. I’m going to share a few of these items in my next newsletter, which will come in the next day or so. I hope it opens up a dialogue for opening our eyes a little wider to possibilities.

Tell me: What’s something you want to do or be that might not have been in your field of vision in the past? I would love to hear! 

  • AliThinks

    I have a niggling feeling that I am supposed to write Something. My ex used to tell me that I should write a novel, but when I let him read what I wrote, he said “Where is this going? What’s the point?” So I shelved the idea for a long, long time.

    There’s a huge writing community in Lexington, and I need to work up the courage to really join it…but that means writing…and I am afraid that my writing is not good enough.

    • Stephanie at Visible and Real

      I don’t know you, but I know the feeling of being afraid that my writing is not good enough.
      That’s a really hard situation to be coming from and harder to work through.I am sending you good writing mojo, and strong thoughts. You can do it!

      • AliThinks

        Thanks. :)

    • http://www.skinnyemmie.com/ Emily Sandford

      Dude. We need to start our own writing group, or join one. I am going through the same self-doubts right now with writing, and I would love to not feel so alone with this, plus have people to be accountable to!

  • http://kylydia.wordpress.com Lydia

    In planning for this whole “potentially moving abroad” thing, I’ve been asked REPEATEDLY if it’s something *I* want to do or if I’m being cajoled into it by my husband. I get the impression that people don’t think I’m capable of taking such a leap. Frankly, it pisses me off and makes me dig my heels in deeper and become more determined to make it happen. Yes, it’s atypical of me to have such a wild dream and follow through with something that isn’t tightly controlled and secured. You know what? I’m tired of being that way. I’m going for it.

  • Stephanie at Visible and Real

    This is an *awesome* post. Such a good reminder. And I appreciate, so much, your willingness to share a little bit of your own process. Thank you. I am leaving my full time job in mid-August to persue a few things through school, all part time things that don’t really pay. I’m hesitant about getting a part time position elsewhere, because my schedule is a little crazy. So, I will be starting to develop my own business and see how that goes… it’s crazy scary and something I’ve talked about for three years! The fact that, now, it’s the idea I’m both most excited about and would work best with what the future holds, it’s awesome and frightening!

  • RebeccaL

    When I first started reading this post the birth of your friend’s niece, I thought you were going to talk about you becoming a mother!!! And that is something I personally thought a few years ago would not have been a possibility for me (we’re gay, we don’t have tons of money, we’d have to go through the expensive 2nd parent adoption process to become legal parents, etc.). Well, my wife and I are now both the legal parents of our two young children, and I love my kids and being a mom more than anything.

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