Time Tells Us What We're Not

A few months ago, I wrote a blog following a pretty powerful quote that I came across. The quote is:

“We spend most of our twenties discovering all of the hundreds of things we can be. But as we mature into our thirties, we begin to discover all of the things we will never be. The challenge for us as we reach our forties and beyond is to put it all together-to know our capabilities and recognize our limitations-and become the best we can be.”
-Catherin B. Ahles

Today I want to expand on that quote some more.

When we're faced with too many decisions to make we can become paralyzed and unable to decide. Knowing this, perhaps one of the reasons why kids don't know who they are is because the possibilities available to them are endless.

As we get older we figure out who we are by what we no longer can "be".

At 30, for example, I can't be a NHL player no matter how hard I try. When someone asks me "who are you?" I can answer, with certainty, that I'm not an hockey player.
The kid doesn't know if he's going to be a hockey player yet though. That option, among many others, is still available to him - so how can he decide, with certainty, "what he'll be when he grows up?". Most kids don't know who they are, let alone who they'll become, and that's okay because they'll figure it out as they get older and understands more about the world they live in and its limitations.