The Fantastic Life

Aging Gracefully???

I like to look at people’s life lessons—the learnings they’ve had over the years. Today’s LIFEies are some very cool lessons from a 50 year old. The last lesson is: There is no such thing as ageing gracefully. I love that. I am now 61 but still learning lessons every day.

Here are some cool takeaways I got from the article below. I also highlighted the lessons that I found particularly insightful. Scroll down if you have a few minutes.

The definition of aging gracefully is different for every person. Have you defined yours?

In the end, being content with all the decisions you have made both good and bad, might be the true definition of “aging gracefully.”

– Don’t let anyone define what aging gracefully means to you. You might want to be the person sitting at the end of the dock, or you could be the person still running a Fortune 500 company, or you might want the best of both worlds.

Each of us come with our own set of unique life lessons that continue to evolve throughout our lives. Never stop growing!

One benefit of being older: you take the time to reflect on what lessons got you to where you are, and the joy of passing on those lessons to the next generation.

Have a great week!

 

The Fantastic Life Rule # 1

Know Your Stories

If there’s one recurring theme among the life lessons people have shared with me is that they all wish for more time. Don’t waste the time you have—create memories, take risks, and learn your own lessons. 


50 Life Lessons After 50 Years On The Planet

Some things take half a lifetime to learn
By  Dianne Sullivan | Published April 18, 2022Photo by S Migaj: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-person-sitting-on-wooden-planks-across-the-lake-scenery-747964/

When I turned 30 I thought that I had better start behaving like a responsible adult. Turning 40 felt like a really big deal. I feel way more relaxed about turning 50.

I have just under a year to go before this milestone birthday so I am using this as an excuse to reflect back on the life lessons that I’ve learned.

Here are my 50 life lessons.

Relationships

  1. Friends will come and go throughout your life. That’s ok. You have friends for a reason, friends for a season and friends for a lifetime.
  2. Making new friends at 50 can be just as easy as making friends when you are 20. You simply have to be open-hearted and curious about others. You appreciate having friends who are much younger as well as much older.
  3. It’s ok to have fewer friends as you get older. You focus on quality over quantity. All anyone really needs is that one friend who will pick up if you call them at 4 am.
  4. Losing people never gets any easier but you get better at working through grieving instead of trying to bury it all away.
  5. You understand that relationships don’t end when someone dies. You still love that person but they aren’t with you anymore. It is possible and comforting to maintain a relationship with someone who isn’t physically present anymore.
  6. Being married to someone for a long time is really hard. You are sold a lie if you think that marriage is going to be the same 20 years later as it was on your wedding day.
  7. The more comfortable you are in your own skin, the more people will want to be around you. This isn’t something you can force. It comes with age.
  8. Your friends want you to ask them for help so you learn to stop trying to do everything on your own as you’ve done for most of your adult life.
  9. Having friends who disagree with you regularly is a healthy friendship. Find people who challenge your beliefs.
  10. Being a good listener is the single best thing you can do to be a good friend. With age you stop talking about yourself as much.

Money

  1. Being raised in a poor family doesn’t have to mean that you will lack personal finance skills in adult life.
  2. But you will be playing catch up with those raised in families who understand how money really works. It may take you until middle age to figure this out on your own.
  3. Working for an hourly wage will never make you wealthy. Making your money work for you will.
  4. You will wish that you had started an investing habit in your 20s.
  5. As you become older, spending less money becomes very satisfying.
  6. Money stops becoming a means for buying stuff but instead becomes a way to buy your time.
  7. Having money is not the same as having status. You have to earn respect, not buy it.
  8. Having an emergency fund and investing for your future will help you to sleep at night.
  9. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Spend money on life’s small pleasures such as a coffee while you watch the world go by. Save money on the big stuff instead.
  10. True wealth is everything you can’t see. Your neighbours with the expensive car and the never-ending home improvements are riddled with debt. Your frugality hides that you are financially free.

Career

  1. The company that you loved working for when you were 30 is unlikely to be as enjoyable when you are 50.
  2. You won’t feel like any less of an imposter as you progress through your career. In fact, the more successful you become, the louder your inner critic will be.
  3. Working alongside peers who weren’t even born when you were at University will make you feel very old and young again at the same time.
  4. Giving back to the next generation is the best form of job satisfaction.
  5. Never stop learning new skills and challenging yourself every day.
  6. Never be afraid to take a leap into something completely out of your comfort zone.
  7. Don’t compare your career path with anyone else. Take inspiration from others but don’t use their success as a measure for yours. Everyone is on their own path. You do you.
  8. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.
  9. You are so much more than your job title. You become less defined by your work as you age.
  10. Time is your most precious commodity. No job is worth sacrificing time away from your family.

Parenting

  1. Becoming a parent and watching your child grow is the most rewarding journey of your life.
  2. It’s also the toughest.
  3. You will never stop doubting your abilities as a parent.
  4. Your main job as a parent is to prepare them for an eventual life without you. This becomes ever more present in your mind as your own mortality becomes ever more present in the second half of your life.
  5. You will be constantly amazed at how worldly wise your child is.
  6. Staying fit and healthy is part of being a good parent. If you can’t stay fit for yourself then doing it for your child is a great motivator as you age.
  7. Your child will not have the same experiences and thoughts that you did so don’t assume that you are in a position to advise them. As they grow, coach and listen instead of telling.
  8. The first time that your child goes through hurt or disappointment that is out of your control is like having your heart ripped open. This doesn’t become any easier but you do learn to simply be present for them.
  9. By the time you’ve reached your 50s you stop worrying about whether or not you should have had more children. A weight is lifted when the choice is no longer there.
  10. Being a parent will drive you to become a better person.

Random Stuff

  1. Being a runner becomes even more important when you’re older for physical as well as mental fitness. It will also help you to look way younger than your peers when you reach 50.
  2. But you learn that you have to keep adapting your exercise routine. You can no longer ignore the benefits of strength training.
  3. You also can’t get away with eating the same food. Mid-life hormonal changes really suck and weight management suddenly becomes more difficult.
  4. As you age, you become better at filtering out the noise of well-intended but invalid advice. Ignore people who tell you that intermittent fasting will make you put on weight.
  5. Adjusting from having perfect vision to needing to wear varifocals really sucks.
  6. With age, you really do stop caring as much about what other people think about you. You know whose opinion matters and you can ignore everyone else.
  7. You will never have thin legs no matter how much running you do.
  8. You no longer feel that you have to follow the latest fashions. You’ve become skilled at knowing what styles suit your body shape.
  9. One pair of Birkenstocks can last you 20 years and take you to many places.
  10. Journalling is the best form of free therapy.
  11. There’s no such thing as ageing gracefully.

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