Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Those people who love you the most, may try hardest to stop you from becoming something you want to become.

I recently read a blog post about how your friends and relatives may try to stop you from becoming a writer.  This is not a surprise, and it does not speak badly of your loved ones.

Consider your loved ones: they love you for who you are now, where you are now. That is admirable.

You walk in the room and announce that you are becoming a writer (butcher, baker, candlestick maker, or fill-in-the-blank). You have told them — these people who love you for who you are — that you are becoming something else, i.e., you are changing.

Your declaration of change is frightening. Will you still be lovable after you change? And the big fear: will you still love them after you change?

I guess at this point I am supposed to have a wonderful conclusion to this. So here goes:

Your loved ones’ resistance to you becoming something is an expression of their love. Take their love and use it to boost your becoming, boost your change. They may not love you as much later, but you can still love them.