How old are you?
How many times do you get asked that question, how often does it feel good to answer that?
What is the purpose of the question, “How old are you?”
Every time you read a magazine about a famous person, or any person in a newspaper article, they always identify the person by their age. The Central Park Jogger was just 27, now Bradley Cooper is 36, Jennifer Lawrence, just 19. However it is, it’s always, here’s who they are, and here’s their age. Why? Why is that information so important? Why do we need to know? Well, there’s just one reason, so that we can compare ourselves to them.
The thing is, every single time you compare yourself to someone else, you lose power. You become a disempowered person.
The only reason we ask people how old they are is because we want to compare them to something, some idea of success, some idea of their success against our success, some idea of what we can be in conjunction with who they are.
How many years do they have left to live? So someone says he’s 30. Well, we can surmise he’s got about 42 years to go, what has he achieved? Is he a winner or is he a loser? When we see that McJagger wrote the song, “Satisfaction” at age 19 and you’re in your 30’s, 40’s or 50’s, and you haven’t made a hit song, it sure could make you cry. If you were an actor and you were in your 30’s, and compared yourself to
Leonardo DiCaprio, and you’re an unknown actor, it might make you want to jump off of a bridge.
But what about Leo? If he compares himself to a 30-year-old no-name actor, does he lose power too?
Yes, he does. But it might not seem like it immediately.
Most people don’t think about it, but while comparing downward might feel good in the short run, in the long run, it’s still feeding your ego, it’s still feeding your insecurities, and will ultimately keep you stuck. It’s far better to focus on what you want to create as compared to yourself. Become your own approver, seek your own joy, and recognize that different people are on their own path, and you should congratulate them on their victories compared with their past selves.
At the end of the day, you may take upon this philosophy I put forth, which is to become ageless and forget your age.
Other people will challenge you on it, now and forever, but that’s okay. The more you forget your age, the more ageless you will become, and the more timeless you will become. If you did reveal your age, people will be shocked because you will always have a youthful way about you. You’ll stop comparing yourself to what you could have been, what you should have been, or where you should be for your age, and you’ll start living young.
So, in your mind, think of yourself as 16 and the whole world’s before you. What would you do today differently than if you were 30 or 40 or 50, than if you were 16? What actions would be different? What dreams would you allow yourself to dream again?
Be ageless.
John
Comments are closed.