anything is possible

I've been thinking a lot about human potential. We've been learning here in the house about the brain and how important the years from birth to age three are on the development of the brain. Did you know that the brain structure of a three year-old is comparable to that of an adult? Those years are when the brain builds itself up for the rest of a person's life. Pretty important. But that led me to wonder, what about after the age of three? Almost all of our lives consist of life after that and those years are super important too. Everything that happens to us in our lives are what help shape us into the people that we become and the people we want to be: the families we have (or don't have), the countries that we live in, the friends we have, the cities and towns we live in, the people we are surrounded with, the role that religion plays (or doesn't play), AND how much we let all of these things affect us. Sure there is a lot to be said about brain chemistry and all of that, but so much of who we are is who we chose to be and I'm becoming a big believer in that.

We can do anything if we try hard enough. I realize that this sounds cliche and it is—cliches exist because they hold a little bit of truth; that is why we still use them. I'd always thought that speaking another language fluently would be impossible. While I'm certainly still not at that point I am starting to believe that it is possible. I always thought that other people were better at academics than I was, but I'm beginning to realize that people learn differently and are good at different things. Stupid, I know, that it's taken me 22 years to believe this fact that I have been told and that I have told people over and over again, but sometimes it just takes awhile to believe what you already know is true. I am good at things that other people aren't good at, and other people are good at things that I'm not good at, BUT that doesn't mean that I can't learn to be good at the things I'm not and that I can't teach other people to be good at the things I am good at. Phew! Wordy, perhaps, but true.

If we take care of our bodies—and I don't mean pamper them but keep them healthy by eating right and getting exercise—then we can do amazing things. Maybe not great feats of incredible strength but we can walk great distances or carry things that are heavier than we thought we could manage (like people who need our help). The human body has great strength. I recently re-watched this video called The Longest Way and it really brought home to me how our only limitations in life are our imaginations. This guy walked across China. Why? Why not! And if he can do that than any of us can follow our dreams as well.