At some point in our life, we stop worrying about how old we are. It takes a long time to get to that point, though, doesn’t it?
When we’re actually young, we want to be older. When we start getting older, we want to pretend that we’re not. We like to believe that we’re still young. When we hit our 40’s and then our 50’s, we like to think that the old saying of “you’re only as old as you feel” is accurate. We still think that, if we refuse to acknowledge that we’re getting older, we can pretend we’re still about ten years younger than we actually are. That’s pretty easy to do when you feel younger!
When you’re still running around trying to do it all, you feel young, you feel invincible! It’s easy to tell yourself that you’re still young at heart, which is all that really matters. Age is just a number; it’s how you feel that counts.
Well, at some point, we all have to admit to ourselves that we are, indeed, getting older. That doesn’t mean we have to consider ourselves as old, just older than we were. At no point in our lives do we have to feel bad about being older, though. As a matter of fact, I’m finding it to be a bit liberating. I no longer feel like I HAVE to do every single thing that I used to do. I’m acknowledging that it’s okay to move just a little bit slower than I used to. I no longer get as much done because it does take me longer and sometimes I just don’t feel up to it. This is the bonus time in my life! I really don’t HAVE to do it all anymore. I’m giving myself permission to slow down and not make excuses about it, even to myself!
I don’t know that anybody has higher expectations for us than we do ourselves. I’ve always felt like I didn’t have any other option than to do every single thing that I was capable of doing. It wasn’t acceptable to do less. Well, now that I’m about to turn one of those nice even round numbers soon, I’m telling myself that I am now authorized to do whatever I feel like. Obviously we all have commitments that require our time, but beyond that, we all have things that we WANT to do and things that we feel COMPELLED to do. I’m going to start doing more of the things that I want to do instead. I’m going to leave undone some of the things that I’ve previously done just because I “should”.
No matter how old you are, you are entitled to live your best life. Take care of yourself; take care of those people that are important to you. Be conscious of those things that you want to make a priority in your life. Make time for those and fit the rest in when you’re able. There comes a time in your life when you’re going to recognize what’s important and what’s not. The sooner you find yourself at that point, the more time you’ll have to live the way that you want to!
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