Self-Help
5 Keys to Reviving a Childhood Dream
A concert pianist proves it’s never too late to start over.
Posted September 30, 2025 Reviewed by Gary Drevitch
Key points
- People may abandon their dreams because they feel haunted by critical adults from their childhood.
- If you have a childhood dream you set aside, you can revive it with determination, hope, and support.
- Steps to reviving a dream include getting a new teacher, setting goals and finding a positive community.
Nine-year-old Nathan finally found the courage to share his secret with his piano teacher.
"When I grow up, I want to be a concert pianist," he said, his voice cracking as he stared at his tattered sneakers. He anticipated praise, imagined his teacher's delight, and envisioned himself performing in concert halls to cheers and shouts of "Bravo!"
"Sorry, Nathan," she sighed bitterly. "You just don't have the talent."
Over 60 years later, those words still sting. "I felt absolutely crushed and worthless," Nathan recalls, "Not just as a musician but as a person as well."
Earlier this month, I had the privilege of attending Nathan's concert pianist debut in front of a sold-out hall in New York City. The most remarkable part? Nathan is 75 years old, a powerful reminder that it's never too late to re-awaken a dream.
The profound impact of early experiences
Words have enormous power in children's lives. As adults, how we speak to children often takes root in their unconscious. Our words can inspire and lift, or hurt and crush.
The impact of Nathan's early experiences with his piano teacher cannot be underestimated. Individuals in my weekly therapy groups often confess that they feel haunted by the critical words of adults from their childhood—adults who thoughtlessly undermined their dreams in an instant with a critical phrase or sentence.
For years, Nathan's piano teacher would slap his hands whenever he made a mistake. He took the abuse and absorbed her lack of belief in him. She felt he was untalented, so Nathan came to believe he was. "I felt like such a failure. I decided it was better to be invisible," Nathan recalls.
Later in life, he accepted a position as a music teacher in an elementary school and set aside his dreams of concert performance.
The path to reclaiming a dream
Early one morning, a week after he retired from teaching, Nathan sat down before his Buddhist altar. The sun was rising just outside his window, casting long shadows on his apartment building. A dedicated Buddhist practitioner for over 40 years, Nathan never misses morning chanting. But that particular morning, a new thought popped into his mind: "Why not try again? What have I got to lose?"
When Nathan first heard of the Taubman piano technique, he thought, "I'm too old to learn a new technique." But he overrode his reluctance and booked a session. After his first lesson, Nathan was aghast: "I was in shock! I discovered my childhood piano teacher was at fault, not me. I needed to revise my technique. It wasn't my talent – it was my teacher!"
It took Nathan six long years to relearn how to play the piano. However, by the end, he discovered that he could play any classical piece with complete confidence. In fact, there was nothing he couldn't play.
How to begin again
Nathan's story is inspiring people in his community for one simple reason: He didn't give up. The concert wasn't a miracle; it was the result of hard work. He didn't let age or past experiences define his future. Nathan also initiated music hangouts in his apartment complex and local parks, which provide opportunities for friends and neighbors to gather and perform for one another. "I wanted to use music to bring people together," he shared.
I sat down with Nathan after his concert, and he offered insights to anyone struggling to reclaim a dream. Here are a few:
1. Find a new teacher. Whether you play a sport, create art, or play music, a bad teacher can undermine your talent by focusing on your limitations and insecurities, or by poisoning your confidence with criticism. If you leave any class repeatedly feeling hopeless and defeated, perhaps it's time to consider a new teacher.
2. Surround yourself with people who believe in you. If your friends don't provide encouragement and support, especially when you're struggling, find better friends. Nathan shared with me that the key to his positive outlook is the monthly neighborhood Buddhist meetings that he hosts in his home. "I love hosting meetings because the Buddhist community fills me with hope. After each meeting, I feel completely refreshed. Without them believing in me, even when I didn't, I would never have had the courage to book that concert hall."
3. Set goals. Setting a goal gives you a target, structure, and direction. A Buddhist peace activist who inspires Nathan, Daisaku Ikeda, wrote: "When you advance toward a goal, obstacles are certain to rise in your path, and that is the moment of truth when the struggle with yourself begins...Victors are those who practice self-mastery."
4. Don't give up. There will be dark days, times when you want to abandon your goals. Nathan certainly felt like giving up many times. But he continued in the face of obstacles and credits his spiritual community as a constant source of strength and renewal: "My Buddhist practice and my friends in faith remind me every day that where there's conviction, there's hope. The concert was proof of that. Throughout the entire performance, I felt completely confident. No one was more surprised than me!"
5. Practice, practice, practice. Without sustained commitment and ongoing effort, it's not possible to gain mastery of anything. Even natural talent wanes with time. Make steady efforts, day by day, one tiny step at a time. As Nathan proved, such efforts are the greatest path to revising a dream. The boy who decided it was better to be invisible is now center stage and inspiring others not to give up on their dreams as well.
