Member-only story
Yesterday, I turned 50…
So far, I’ve learned what worries us most matters little..
When we’re teenagers, we think we know more than the people who raised us. We are fearless and shortsighted, a dangerous combination. In our 20s, we are invincible and believe we have all the time in the world, so we waste it. By age 30, you feel like you can conquer the world, and most of us kill ourselves trying. When you’re in your 40s, you worry about your choices and whether they are. So you either stay stuck where you are, afraid to make changes, or move around so much that you’ve confused yourself and the target!
Remember when we were kids in school, one of our biggest lessons was “Don’t cheat”. Remember? Teachers were always saying, “Eyes forward” and “Keep your eyes on your own paper.”
When we don’t keep our eyes on our own paper, we lose what is truly for us. We spend most of our young adult and some middle age lives craning our necks. Peeking over, trying to see what the next man or woman is doing. If it looks good enough for us, then our target will move.
That, my friends, is how we waste a lot of time. Most humans want happiness. We want to be happy. And when you’re older, it’s peace and…
