The Key To Becoming Who You Want To Be

imposter syndrome

We don’t mean to impose limits on ourselves, but it certainly happens. We may be afraid to dream big, set our sights far, and aim for lofty goals–especially if reaching the ends of those goals will take a considerable amount of time.

Ten years is a considerable chunk of time for a human being. In 10 years, where do you want to be in life? Who do you want to be? These questions can feel intimidating or frightening, but there are many benefits to dreaming big.

People who plan without limiting themselves face less competition.

Forbes encourages people to dream big when it comes to major life goals and transformations because it’s often lonely at the top. When you aim for big changes that require a lot of work and commitment, there are often way fewer people up there with you trying to accomplish the same things, earn the same titles, or master the same challenges.

For example, consider big job promotions. When high-end positions become available, there are often few people who are truly fit for the job–it requires a certain attitude, amount of experience, and sets of skills to be a successful candidate.

An entry-level position may have hundreds of applicants, but a more prestigious position may only have a handful. If you spend time to build yourself into a successful high-end position candidate, you make yourself stand out from the crowd and broaden your horizons.

Keeping things small and simple is a boring way to live life.

People who shoot for the moon may not always hit their target, but they’ll still land among the stars. When you push yourself toward bigger goals, you may not always reach them completely, but you’ll have gained so much wonderful experience along the way.

In 10 years, if you’ve spent your life working hard to meet goals, you’ll have met a lot of great people and experienced a lot of great lessons along the way. These experiences build you into a greater person–in 10 years, the person you’ll become will greatly benefit from living such a robust life.

You aren’t going to live forever.

Forbes brings up another excellent point: Many people impose limits on themselves because they consider all the bad things that could happen if they try to broaden their horizons.

It’s important to remember that you won’t live forever. Sure, bad things can happen when you put yourself in a vulnerable position to learn and grow, but ultimately, the worst thing that can happen to any human being is death. Since we’re all going to eventually die anyway, it’s important to live life with a sense of adventure. Take some risks. They may not all work out in your favor, but many of them could.

You only get one wild and precious life.

The famous poet Mary Oliver’s poem “The Summer Day” concludes with a wonderfully inspiring line: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

The essence of the poem is simple: You only get one life to live on Earth, so how are you going to spend it?

Dream big!

Rather than limiting yourself to smaller goals, consider who you really want to be in 10 years. If you loosen your limitations, you can work toward transforming yourself into someone you really want to be and accomplish goals you never thought you’d reach.

Even if you don’t meet every single expectation you set for yourself, you will have been on an adventure to get there.