Set in Concrete

Was politely informed by a 5 year old today that he would die before his 4-year-old friend because he was born before him. Cute, and a great example of concrete thinking. How much do we limit our thinking of the future to our current situation and past experience? Probably quite a lot. How often do we fail to dream because our experience teaches us otherwise? A lot of people probably never reach their dreams because they don’t bother to dream at all. How many children grow up only to live out their parents’ dreams because they allowed their parents to dream for them? I had a patient this week that would love to play pro soccer-only one problem; his parents are unwilling to let him pursue it because they don’t see a future in it. There may be more than one way for him to achieve his dream, but his parents would rather pick his career for him than listen to him and sit down and make a way for him to succeed (he could do a part time or distance degree later and still train, or maybe get a sports scholarship to university to give him another option if it doesn’t work out). That last statement in parentheses raises another question-if you give someone the option to do something else “if it doesn’t work out for you”, will that not increase the opportunity for failure by creating an escape route when things get tough? Anyone got any ideas or stats on this?