You are limitless

It's not too late to be what you always wanted to be.

When I grow up, I’m gonna be an astronaut, and a chef, and a doctor, and a racing driver. All at once. What child hasn’t beamed with ambition and optimism? These goals may seem cute if a little unrealistic, but really, they’re not: somebody is going to be a racing driver, so why not you?

Think back to your school years and all the activities you enjoyed—the people who ‘made it’ in life, the Olympic athletes, popstars and renowned artists have one thing in common: passion. Sounds great, but didn’t they all start really young? Haven’t I missed my opportunity to be an athlete? Nope.

It’s a common argument: female athletes peak when they’re 17 years old and lose their skills quickly after that, with male athletes peaking around 19. Successful athletes are always young; they fight for their dreams from the get-go and then leave their sport at 25, the normal age of retirement for Olympic athletes. Swimmer Dara Torres was no different: she competed at 17, 21 and 25, then retired and became a mother. Then at 33 years old, she decided she needed a challenge and got back into swimming—and got onto the US Olympic swim team. Fast forward another eight years, she’s 41 years old and went for it again: she still holds the record for oldest US Olympic swimmer.

You’re never too old to pursue a dream—look at Amna Al Qubaisi, starting her karting career a good nine years after most children start. You could be a superstar athlete too. There are countless stories of middle-aged people giving up their vices and targeting marathons, or summoning the courage to audition for the X Factor. Obviously, there are a few hurdles: your brain, responsibilities, society, too much chocolate. But if you really dedicated yourself to it, and loved it with all your heart, you could be limitless.

And if sport or singing don’t float your boat? No problem—there’s no skill in this world you couldn’t learn if you wanted to. Any skill takes time to develop and there are countless famous people who started learning after 20, 30, 40 or even 50. And when you start doing what you want to do, you’re probably going to be really bad at first.

Van Gogh started painting in his 20s and was considered to have no artistic talent at all. He was forced to sit in the back of the classrooms, where the worst artists languished. You’ll probably experience the same: you and everyone else will think you’re bad. But if you stick with it, if you’re willing to put in the work and the time and the blood and the sweat and the tears, if you keep loving it through all that, you might just paint Starry Night.

And don’t let anyone tell you, you can only be one thing in life. Not only is there more than enough time to pursue all your interests, but you could be the next Mae Jemison. She became the first African American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on 12 September 1992. Before that, she graduated from medical school and served in the peace corps, then founded a company researching the application of technology to daily life when she retired from NASA. So she’s a doctor and an astronaut: but she’s also a dancer and an actress, holding nine honorary doctorates in science, engineering, letters, and the humanities.

As her mother told her during her last senior year in college: ‘You can always dance if you’re a doctor, but you can’t doctor if you’re a dancer.’

During her time at Cornell Medical College, Mae Jemison took lessons in modern dance at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre—she took a poster from the theatre with her to space. Pursuing one dream does not mean relinquishing another.

Go for it. ■

‘Talent is a pursued interest. In other words, anything that you’re willing to practice, you can do.’

~ Bob Ross