What do your children believe they are capable of?

Remember when you were growing up, and you believed you were capable of anything? When the adults, instead of weighing up the odds and deciding that a thing was too expensive, too complicated, or too far out of your reach told you, “Anything is possible!” and you believed it?

Do you still believe it? No? Why not? You didn’t let reality get in the way of your dreams did you? I did. I still do. That’s why I can’t help but wonder – and marvel every day – at my daughter’s faith in herself and her abilities.

Among other things, seven year old Poppy is convinced she can control the weather, the sun, the moon and the stars. She’s not delusional; she just believes she has the power. She believes she can keep the sun up for longer each day the way I once believed I could do just about anything I wanted to in life.

She doesn’t hesitate to call out the stars each evening, or to tell the rain, “We need you today, but go to someone else tomorrow who needs you more because I have a day at the beach planned, okay?”, and she wishes on the first evening star as if her life depended on it. Actually, I still do that too, but do I believe that my wish will come true? It will if I don’t tell anyone what it is I’ve wished for, right? Isn’t that how it works?

Our children believe what we let them believe. They learn what they live. I love this meme, which a friend re-posted on Facebook yesterday. I think it’s my favourite of all time. I’m sure you’ve seen it. Read it again, and don’t speed read, skipping over a few lines in the middle. Instead, try to read it all again line by line. Like you would a Rudyard Kipling poem...

Yesterday, at the end of a fun family photo shoot for The Courier Mail (it’s their story on single child families – the pros and cons – I’ve used the hashtag #onlychildnotlonelychild on Twitter and Instagram) my invincible daughter leaped up to the top of the rock wall in our backyard, raised her arms above her head, looked to the sky and announced she was keeping the sun up for just a little bit longer. The photographer had commented on how perfect the light was and she was determined to hold onto it for another moment. Her sense of entitlement completely innocent, her belief in herself and her ability unfaltering. As far as Poppy is concerned in this and any other moment, there is no reason she could not keep the sun out, holding onto the golden light and the lovely extra few minutes together; a picture perfect family, smiling, laughing, enjoying the warmth of the sun, and of each other.

I’m not sure what it is that puts an end at some stage of childhood to this unflailing self-confidence, but I’d like it to disappear from our world now please, thank you. Our children must grow up believing they can fly, and rule the world, and control the weather, and keep the sun up in the sky. The loss of this self-belief is why we want to, so desperately sometimes, keep believing in the happy endings that Disney and our TV series and our favourite films insist on feeding us. Well, mostly our American and Australian films…our European films end only sometimes happily, and sometimes not so much. There is joy in reality, and it’s up to us to see it, and believe that it’s ours for the taking.

What do your children believe they are capable of? What do you believe YOU are capable of? It shouldn’t be so different, should it? Don’t stop believing.

Meditation/Affirmation: I am confident, and I am capable of anything I prepare my heart for.

I wish (I WISH!) I had footage of Poppy dancing around and singing at the top of her voice the much-loved Glee version of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing. She’s been singing it for years – it was the favourite song at DE Studios when I taught vocal there – but here’s the original, joyful Glee clip instead. Look how young everybody is! Full of unwavering self-belief because they've never NOT believed anything's possible...

or did they learn somewhere along the way to become exceptional actors? What are your thoughts? Was there a time when you truly believed you were capable of anything? What about now?