"I believe I can do anything. If I decide I want to be a doctor tomorrow, I'm going to be a doctor"
About this Quote
The specific intent is plain: to project agency. "I decide" is doing the heavy lifting, framing success as a matter of will, not permission. But the subtext is more complicated. The doctor example is intentionally extreme, almost cartoonish, because it's not about med school logistics; it's about refusing the idea that your lane is fixed by what you've already done. It's a corrective to the cultural script that treats actresses, especially those known for iconic early roles, as permanently boxed in. Johnson, remembered by many from a very defined pop-culture moment, is implicitly talking back to typecasting: if the public insists you're one thing, you respond by insisting you're everything.
Context matters: in late-20th-century celebrity culture, confidence got marketed as authenticity. This quote taps that era's self-help energy while also exposing its blind spot - willpower isn't the only gatekeeper. That tension is what makes it work: it's aspirational enough to inspire, unrealistic enough to signal it's really about psychological freedom, not credentials.
Quote Details
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Johnson, Amy Jo. (2026, January 16). I believe I can do anything. If I decide I want to be a doctor tomorrow, I'm going to be a doctor. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-believe-i-can-do-anything-if-i-decide-i-want-to-125526/
Chicago Style
Johnson, Amy Jo. "I believe I can do anything. If I decide I want to be a doctor tomorrow, I'm going to be a doctor." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-believe-i-can-do-anything-if-i-decide-i-want-to-125526/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I believe I can do anything. If I decide I want to be a doctor tomorrow, I'm going to be a doctor." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-believe-i-can-do-anything-if-i-decide-i-want-to-125526/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.







