George Elliot said, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”  A great quote if there ever was one.  It’s inspiring for us Boomers who still have some gas left in the tank and are looking for “one more bite of the apple.”

As I see it, we are never finished developing into who we want to be, we are constantly growing, changing and becoming more and more of who we are. Time does that.

I was reading recently about how Michelangelo went about creating a sculpture.  He said that he looked at the rock, decided what was in it, then chipped everything else away.  In other words, he was looking to see what the rock was supposed to be.  Isn’t that what we do, constantly seek to find who we are supposed to be. Our job then, is to get rid of everything else.

There is a tendency to grow up becoming who others want us to be. Then one day we wake up and look around, and realize that the path we have been on has not been of our choosing; we have lived primarily to satisfy the expectation of those around us – parents, teachers, children, friends, bankers, etc.

So, do you continue following someone else’s path or do you cut your own and leave a trail? If so, it’s time to chip away at all that doesn’t belong.

It’s never too late to be what you might have been.

Evidence That It’s Never Too Late:

• Nelson Mandela was 76 when he became President
• Jack Lalanne at age 70 handcuffed, shackled, towed 70 rowboats
• Ronald Reagan was 69 when he became President of the United States
• Dianna Nyad, at 64, became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a protective cage.
• J R R Tolkien was 62 when the Lord of The Ring books came out
• Colonel Harland Sanders was 61 when he started the KFC Franchise
• Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III was 57 years old when he successfully ditched US Airways Flight 1549, in the Hudson River in, 2009. All of the 155 passengers aboard the aircraft survived
• Dr. Seuss was 54 when he wrote The Cat In The Hat
• Ray Kroc Was 53 when he bought the McDonalds franchise and took it to unprecedented levels
• Abraham Lincoln was 52 when he became president
• Leonardo Da Vinci was 51 years old when he painted the Mona Lisa
• Charles Darwin was 50 years old when his book On the Origin of Species came out

Decide if you are on the path you want to be on, or if it’s time to makes some changes.

Stephen John Stulic is a partner with Designs To Grow Coaching and Training, helping clients find their voice and a life of purpose by encouraging them to make inspired choices, and challenging them with the prospect of what they can become.  He can be reached at stephen@designstogrow.com.