And yes everyone is writing about this now. But I am quite serious when I say who cares how old you are?
I’m 46 (and a half). In a perfect world I should be thinking about how I can get my mortgage paid off before I retire. But I don’t even have a mortgage! And I will not have one for the foreseeable future. Is this an issue?
No, I am still having the biggest celebration because I just finished paying off all my bad wasted debt. At 45 I got serious about getting rid of over $30k of useless nothing debt that had been hanging around for probably 10 years. Was it too late? Well at the time it felt nearly impossible as it had been there so long it felt like part of my life. And sometimes during those 2 years I felt like the most boring person on earth for saying no to everything. But based on how free I feel now – it certainly wasn’t too late. Because I’m likely to live another 45 years. And if I can achieve that in less than 2 years imagine what I can achieve in the next 45! It’s also given me confidence. Finally I am one of ‘those’ people who makes big goals and actually meets them. For the first time. I never dreamed I would’ve been able to do this. I know there were times I hated it passionately – but looking back now the feeling is so good of being proud of myself, even in awe of myself, that the last 2 years actually don’t seem like they were hard at all!
I’ve also spent my life wondering who I am and what I want to do with my life. So I’ve started focusing on this over the last couple of years. And I’ve tried a couple of things including nutrition study recently. And realised it’s not for me. It’s too bossy and boring. Who cares how many grams of protein you need to eat every day. I don’t think we can maintain that every single day for life. What I care about is just choosing to eat nutritious food and fuel my body for it to be the best every day. No sugar, no white carbs – lots of vegetables, some fruit and toxin free meat and some fat (cheese, avocados, nuts, olive oil etc). The fat keeps you full. The more colours you eat the more vitamins and minerals you get. Much much simpler. And it’s been a process I’ve been implementing over the last 5 years or so as I learn more and more about food. And I’m pretty comfortable with where I am at right now food and body wise. But it doesn’t feel I wasted time and money on the course because I learnt it’s not for me – I don’t live with the regret of wondering if I would’ve loved it. I did it and didn’t love it. Perfect knowledge. You can’t put a price on knowledge.
But what about my job and my passion? I’ve just resigned from a 10 year job to live on my long service leave for a couple of months. With my counselling qualifications I’m going to do a life coaching course. I can see that many people think I am totally nuts (I soooooo know my mother would never approve of throwing in a safe and secure job without having something else safe and secure to go to) but why not? Why not have faith in ourselves to give something new a go? And maybe it won’t work. Maybe I won’t like it. But at least I know then. But maybe in a year or 2 I will be insanely happy making a difference in the world – maybe this is going to be a dream come true. So if I work hard, just like I did paying off my debt and by 48 I might be finally closer to a dream life. Finding a career I really want. And it might be a hard slog especially in the beginning but it will be worth it if I get to a better place for me. I can go back to Executive Assistant roles – there are plenty out there and I know I’m good at it. But why keep doing it when it’s starting to bore me senseless?
What do you want to do? What do you want to change? I don’t care if you’re 80 – if you start doing yoga you WILL become more flexible in 6 months. So imagine the difference you could make at 70. There are people out there freaking out about turning 30 or 40. Look how much time you have left. Embrace your life – experiment, try new things, become the best version of you. Be curious – as Elizabeth Gilbert says in ‘Big Magic’. I’m having faith in the universe and taking the leap – we need to stop doubting ourselves and start believing in our capabilities.
So stop listening to society and thinking it’s too late. It’s never ever too late to make changes in your life that will bring you more happiness. Stop comparing where you are at with other people. It doesn’t bring any happiness. Use that energy to focus on you and learn to love you and be the best you. There are no rules in this world about what you ‘have’ to do – go on your own journey. The world would be so boring if we were all exactly the same anyway. Don’t you think?
Be kind to yourself.
Wx
