Somewhere along the way, we started believing that a big life also has to look big.
You have to achieve something. Move forward. Grow. Earn more than you did last year, be further ahead than you were five years ago, and preferably have at least some idea of where you want to be ten years from now. You have to travel. Chase your dreams. Work on yourself. Have a plan. And thankfully, these days, we are increasingly free to decide who we want to be.
You can become a CEO. An entrepreneur. A world traveller.
You can run a company, lead a hundred people, or build something everyone else says is impossible.
You can have children. Or not.
You can live alone. Or with someone.
You can travel the world with nothing but a backpack and three pairs of underwear.
And rightly so.
But sometimes I wonder whether, somewhere along the way, we lost a small piece of freedom while believing we had finally gained it all.
Because what if you don’t want to climb any higher?
What if your greatest desire isn’t to conquer the world, but simply to find somewhere that feels like home? What if you enjoy your work, but don’t live to work? What if you would rather have time than status? What if you simply aren’t looking for more, bigger, further or better?
Suddenly, it feels as though you owe the world an explanation.
Don’t you want to achieve anything?
Don’t you have any ambition?
Don’t you want to move forward in life?
But forward. Where, exactly?
And who decided that your direction had to be the same as mine?
If you dream of building a company from the ground up, do it. If you want to travel the world, go. If you want to write books, earn a degree, climb a mountain, or build something everyone says is impossible, then I hope you do.
But if your dream looks smaller… I hope you dare to choose that one too.
Maybe all you want is a home you love coming back to. Work that pays enough without taking every hour you have. Children who will one day still remember the sound of your voice when you called their name.
Someone beside you with whom you don’t need to have an adventure every day, because sometimes doing the grocery shopping together is adventure enough.
A garden. A dog. A stack of books. Coffee in the morning. Peace.
Maybe, to some people, that sounds like a small life. But I think we may be getting that completely wrong.
Maybe the size of a life isn’t measured by how many people know your name, but by how many people would feel your absence.
We have become so used to believing that happiness is waiting somewhere further ahead. After that promotion. After that trip. When the children are older. When there is more money… .
Only then the real life can begin.
But life doesn’t announce itself. No letter arrives. No voice from the heavens says: Congratulations. As of today, your real life has officially begun.
It just happens. On a Tuesday afternoon while you are peeling potatoes. On an evening when someone is sitting beside you on the sofa. In a message asking whether you got home safely. In coffee gone cold because the conversation lasted too long. In a fit of laughter over something that, afterwards, is impossible to explain. Maybe you don’t always have to want more. Maybe there is something incredibly brave about knowing when something is enough. Not because you have stopped dreaming, but because you have learned that not every dream has to sound big to create a big life.
Maybe you want to change the world. Then please, go and do it.
But maybe you simply want to create a small world that a few people really love coming home to.
And truthfully? I’m not sure that is any smaller at all.
De Verhalenheks