SDSI – DOSE 05

What we say we want and what we actually pursue often diverge — and closing that gap
starts with being honest about our own list.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

My second-grade teacher asked me that question, the same as she asked every child in the room. When my turn came, I searched for something that hadn’t already been said. Then I saw it — the photo of our head of state, mounted above the blackboard. “I want to be the president of our country,” I said. My classmates laughed out loud, and I felt the heat of embarrassment rise in my face.

That memory taught me something about the question itself. Childhood is far too early to know what we actually want — most people don’t begin gravitating toward their real interests until adolescence, and even then, the question keeps changing shape as we age.

Ask adults the same question today, in different words, and the pattern repeats. Most people answer: rich. Famous. Influential. Almost nobody says healthy. Happy. Successful. It’s not that these simpler wishes matter less — it’s that they’re often the hardest to actually win, so we quietly stop naming them as goals at all.

John Lennon once wrote “happy” for a school assignment asking what he wanted to be when he grew up. His teacher told him he didn’t understand the assignment. He told her she didn’t understand life.

None of this makes wanting wealth, fame, or influence wrong. The real question worth asking isn’t whether you want more — it’s why.

Pause and Reflect

What’s actually on your list — and is it the list you’d give a child, or the one you’ve quietly settled for?

One Step Forward

Write your real list, unedited for how it sounds to others. Circle the one item you’ve most neglected pursuing.

Explored in full in Part 1, Section I — Dreams and Ambitions of A Holistic Approach to Self-Improvement.

Better Self… Better Life… Better Nation.