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Dick Van Dyke: ''I never thought I would be anything''
The multi-hyphenate talent never saw stardom ahead.
Do you have a sense of what you're truly capable of? Have you taken a run at everything you wanted to? When you scroll back through the memories of years gone by, do you feel like you truly tested your limits?
It's hard to know what we're fully able to do. There isn't a guidebook that explains "When you reach x milestone, you'll have reached your full potential." Isn't it possible, then, that we've misjudged everything it is that we're meant for?
Dick Van Dyke admitted he minimized the scope of his skill set in his early days. Who could blame him? In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Van Dyke reflected on his many years in Hollywood and how he never would've guessed at all that success for himself.
"It seems like my whole life I've always been pushed into doing something I didn't know how to do," he said back in 1991.
At the time, Van Dyke was set to star in NBC's then-new Sunday Night Movie, "Daughters of Privilege." The role saw him embody a darker, more manipulative character than audiences were used to seeing from the typically jovial actor.
Van Dyke, though, remained even-keeled in his approach and wasn't scared to branch out from what he'd done before.
"I didn't study acting, I didn't study anything, simply because I never thought I would be anything... I totally underestimated myself."
Rather than stress out about each new chapter, or obsess over how he'd gotten there in the first place, Van Dyke decentered himself within his own narrative and was almost Zen-like in the way he described his journey.
"At the right moment the right opportunity makes all the difference in the world," he said.
