We are a generation surrounded by messages and one of those messages is, “WHAT you become is more important than WHO you become.” Your job is more important than your character. For an example check out the following video on YouTube.

“When I grow up”—Pussycat Dolls

I don’t know about you, but this song tells me that it doesn’t matter what I try to become, it’s just a matter of chance. It’s only what I wish for and not what I make happen. We all want to do something valuable with our lives, but I think the Pussycat Dolls might be a little off.

As we talk about our futures, I think it’s important to learn from the past. Take for example the founding fathers of our country. It is easy to read our history books and think that these men accomplished great things only once they became older, but the opposite it true. It started a lot earlier.

John Hancock entered Harvard University when he was 13 years old. Samuel Adams completed his master’s degree before he turned 21. Thomas Jefferson frequently studied 15 hours a day during his time at the College of William and Mary.

Of course, at this point it’s easy for all of us normal people to place these guys in the “superhuman” or “so-smart-it’s-disgusting” category and move on. However, there’s a danger in thinking that God simply blessed America with a generation chock-full of patriotic super-nerds just in time to write the Constitution.

Rather, what stood these young men apart from their peers was (1) a seemingly corporate sense that age could not keep them from accomplishing great things, and (2) an extraordinary drive to do the “hard things” that others were often unwilling to attempt or even to think about.

According to the George Washington Bicentennial Committee (WBC), Washington was born into a “middling rank” family, lost his father when he was 11, and was never considered particularly bright or educated by his peers. Nevertheless, he developed a “passion for education [that] caused him to concentrate on hard study” and he mastered geometry, trigonometry, and surveying by the time he was 16 years old.

He went on to hold a job a surveyor at 17 making an equivalent to over $100k today.

At 21 he led men much older than him in battle defeating the French ultimately leading to victory in the war.

At 23 he was in charge of all military in the state of Virginia.

George Washington accomplished more before his 25th birthday than many of us will accomplish in a lifetime. This is because he focused more on WHO he wanted to become instead of WHAT he wanted to be.

If each of us is honest, we all know that young adulthood is not some mystical time period that has no effect on the rest of our lives. These years are the profound shapers of our lives. Here we set our direction, develop habits, and build momentum. As an old saying goes, “As a twig is bent, so grows the tree.”

You will grow into the person you are becoming today. If you choose to focus on WHO you are becoming today you will become the person you WANT to be in the future. This means the choices you make, the words you speak, and the attitudes you have today determine WHO you will be tomorrow.

It is no coincidence that the same Samuel Adams who organized the Boston Tea Party at age 51 wrote his master’s thesis in defense of the people’s liberties at age 21.

Don’t get me wrong. Our generation won’t be shooting guns or throwing tea in the ocean. Our enemy today is not King George. Rather we do battle with a culture that looks down on true adulthood and celebrates immaturity and irresponsibility.

Paul, the greatest contributor to the New Testament writes, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

We need to be honest with ourselves. Is how we’re spending our time now preparing us for WHO we want to become? Are we doing hard things now that will equip us for greater things in the future? These are the fundamental questions for this season of our lives.

Historian Peter Henriques, author of Realistic Visionary: A Portrait of George Washington, put it this way: “Washington became the man he strove to be.”

Henriques’ statement is not only true of Washington and the rest our forefathers, but it’s also true about us. We will become the men and women we strive to be.

It all comes down to the question of where your focus is: Are you thinking more about WHAT you will do when you grow up or WHO you will be when you grow up? I suggest that the second question will often answer the first as well.