“We Know What We Are, But Know Not What We May Be”

The line from the play struck me like a slap across the face.

Never mind that the actress had shouted this into my wife’s face next to me as we were seated in the first row of a small theater.

Last night we saw Hamlet, and it was everything I thought it could be. I’m a Shakespeare geek but I’d never seen it performed live before. And while all the normal, cliché lines from the Bard still hit well, this is the one I thought about in the car the entire way.

And going to sleep last night.

And the whole time on the golf course today.

I can’t stop thinking about it.

Because that describes me. And maybe you. And perhaps lots of us.

Far too often, we prefer comfort over growth; the mundane versus the unknown, and even safety over freedom. For better or for worse, we accept who we are. And there’s not a damn thing wrong with this.

But some of us expect and demand more of ourselves. We know that we improve ourselves by conquering negative aspects of ourselves and embracing and developing the heroic aspects.

Do you know what you are, but long to find out who you could become?

The answer is simple, albeit not easy. The simple truth is if we want to do something; all we have to do is do it.

So go find out.

Find out what you may be and who you may become.

But don’t just do it for you. Do it for all of us.