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Fatherhood Quote by Nicole Kidman

"I'm not sure what the future holds but I do know that I'm going to be positive and not wake up feeling desperate. As my dad said "Nic, it is what it is, it's not what it should have been, not what it could have been, it is what it is""

About this Quote

Kidman’s line reads like a small act of self-direction in an industry built on uncertainty. Actors are trained to live inside contingency: the callback that never comes, the project that collapses, the public narrative that mutates overnight. So when she says she’s “not sure what the future holds,” it’s less confession than baseline reality. The point is what she chooses next: “be positive” and refuse the morning spiral of desperation. That’s not motivational-poster optimism; it’s a discipline, a way of keeping agency when the calendar won’t.

The dad quote does the heavy lifting. “It is what it is” is usually tossed off as resignation, but her version layers it with two explicit ghosts: “not what it should have been, not what it could have been.” She names the alternate timelines before shutting the door on them. The subtext is grief management: you’re allowed to recognize disappointment and lost possibility, but you can’t rent space there. It’s stoicism made practical, not philosophical.

Context matters: Kidman has navigated tabloid scrutiny, career reinvention, and personal upheaval in full view. The appeal of this mantra isn’t that it’s profound; it’s that it’s usable. It offers a script for confronting reality without romanticizing it, and for moving forward without pretending you’re unscarred. In a culture addicted to both reinvention narratives and doomscroll panic, she’s modeling a third posture: clear-eyed acceptance as a starting line, not an endpoint.

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TopicOptimism
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Nicole Kidman on Acceptance and Positive Outlook
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Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman (born June 21, 1967) is a Actress from Australia.

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