Photo: Erzsebet on Flickr

I was at Mom’s Morning Out on Thursday – it’s a group at Valley Church where moms can go and have their kids looked after while they get a chance to sit with other moms, have a coffee and a snack and talk about various topics of interest. Thursday we watched a short video about addictive behaviours and the reason they come about. One of those reasons has been going around in my head since then and I thought I’d put it out there…

When peoples’ talents or passions are squashed by someone – no matter how significant or insignificant in their life – they may suppress that gift forever but replace it with poor self esteem and unhealthy habits.

I thought about my husband, who when he was a kid wanted to fly fighter planes (what little boy didn’t!). He joined the air cadets and was a star student, but one instructor told him flat out, “You’ll never fly. You don’t have perfect vision.” And a dream died.

He never pursued flight training any further and to this day longs to take to the skies in any way possible.

I feel very blessed that my parents always taught me that I could do ANYTHING I put my mind to. I mean it. Anything. And for the most part I still believe that (perhaps as evidenced by some of my current pursuits).

So I’d like to put it out there and ask you? What did you want to do when you were a kid? Or even as a young adult or… not so young adult? What are you good at? Go one… brag a little. We’re all good at something!

I’m good at singing, spinning hook kicks, physics, solving problems and I’m the queen of parallel parking.

Now did someone down the line tell you you couldn’t do it? Did that make you back away from that dream or did it make you that much more determined to get there?

I suppose it has to do with personality type. Despite being shy, I am very determined. For someone who is more hesitant, being told you’re too short, too tall, too fat, too tone-deaf, too dumb etc. could be absolutely devastating.

I pity the fool who crushes my kids’ dreams.

Photo: Boogies with Fish on Flickr

Today I was reading Amber Strocel’s post on Re-evaluating Your Dreams and Desires and it got me thinking. I wrote in my last post that I’m turning over a new leaf this year; that I’ve decided to focus my efforts on things I have always wanted to do but never have instead of on things I think I should do for various reasons… for money… for success. Part of that is re-evaluating what’s important to me, what I have time for and what I have the heart to go after with the precious time I do have. The truth is, I can’t do it all. I can’t continue to do everything I’ve been doing and add to it with new things I’d like to do.

Like Amber, I’m a little stubborn. When I put my mind to doing something, I very much intend to complete it and will usually do so no matter what it takes. I have done some very unique things in my life: Among them, Combat Engineer training with the Canadian Armed Forces, earning my black belt in SKF Kickboxing, losing 60 lbs and running a half marathon. I have a million more things in my bucket list too.

It pains me to quit anything I’ve started.

I’ve decided to give up Urban Shore. While I still believe the concept is a good one and it could be successful if I were to dedicate the time to it that it requires, it’s just not in my heart to do it. It would take far more hours than I’d really anticipated to build it up to what I’d like it to become. I had a vision for it – a community where local residents and business owners can benefit from one another… where locals can find out about what’s available in their own neighborhood and merchants can engage with those residents… a community where everyone could be proud of where we live and who we are. I was planning, in time, to add a mobile subscription component, menus, event listings and more, but really just didn’t give this project the attention it needed, or deserved.

Instead, I will be focusing my efforts on some very real dreams, goals and ambitions this year:

• Songwriting, performing and recording
• Health & Fitness – running, racing and triathlon
• Helping my husband start a new business

In the coming weeks I will write in detail about each of these endeavors… the challenges and the rewards.

What are you focusing your efforts on this year?