I don’t know about you, but hardly a day goes by that I don’t hear someone complaining about their age. It doesn’t matter if it’s someone in their 60s or someone in their 20s. Do you find yourself making negative remarks about your age and about getting older? Do you feel like this negativity surrounding age is affecting you in other areas of life as well?
Everywhere I go, I hear people complaining about their age. And I know, this may seem like a topic that I, in my 30s, am not qualified to talk about. But I’ve been hearing the complaining from peers my own age for over a decade now! It’s not just those in their upper decades that are limiting themselves with age. I believe that having a negative view of our current age or of aging in general is holding so many back from living a vibrant life! That’s why, today, I want to break down some false beliefs we may have collected over the years surrounding aging.
It’s important to understand that age is just a number. We’ve attached negative significance to these numbers, but none of these are absolute truths. So many of us however, put so much certainty into our beliefs about a number, that we inevitably fall into whatever that belief is without even questioning whether or not it has to be that way. Let’s look at an example of this. Many of us have a firm belief that by 85 years of age, we’ll be retired and taking the back seat, so to speak, in life. But Coco Chanel was still the head of her fashion house when she was 85! There are so many examples of individuals that pushed back against what everyone else believed came with a specific age and prove that age is just a number!
When we engage in negative self-talk about our age, we greatly restrict our own abilities. And I’ve heard this kind of talk all the way down to people in their 20s! You can know there is a lot of negative self-talk surrounding age when you hear yourself or others make comments like, “I’m getting too old for this!” or, “I shouldn’t be doing this at my age”. My question is: why? Why shouldn’t you? Who says? It’s okay to acknowledge and accept changes that are happening. We do have to learn to adapt. But we don’t have to stop doing just because we believe we’re too old!
I’d like for you to take some time to think about your own self-talk surrounding age. Do you restrain yourself in any way because you believe you are too old to do something? Have you wanted to take dance classes, for example, but told yourself that you’ve missed it and you’re just too old now? Write down everything in your life that you have not tried or done or worn, etc because you told yourself you were too old. Now I really want to challenge you by recommending that you go out there and give some of these a try! Stop letting a number keep you from living a vibrant life!
What beliefs do you have surrounding aging? How can you begin to reframe those beliefs into much more positive ones? As we discussed with Coco Chanel, there is certainly more than one way to live each decade! I think it’s important to take some time and really think about what we believe about aging and then to really change each belief into something positive and even exciting!
Have you ever met someone who just seems so much younger than their actual age? What do you think makes them feel more youthful? I think that, when we have an approach to life that says, “I’m only as old as I feel” then we are able to throw out the set of rules around age and how it should be and how we should behave.
One part of us that age can’t touch if we don’t allow it to is our mindset. We have the opportunity to have a youthful mindset up until the day we die! We don’t have to surrender a youthful approach to life, ever. So let’s look at what makes up a youthful mindset.
A youthful mind maintains a sense of wonder. You keep a sense of wonder when you allow your mind to continue to grow and expand. You keep a sense of wonder when you understand that there is still so much to experience and see. You keep a sense of wonder when you understand how big God is and how small we are.
A youthful mindset also keeps a sense of adventure. When we stop seeing life as an adventure, we tend to slow down. We tend to lose momentum and that zest and joy for life and all that it can hold. A sense of adventure focuses on the journey, not the end goal. It remains present in the moment. It is excited for the possibilities.
And a third one: a youthful mindset retains a heart of gratitude. When we are living out of gratitude for all that we have, we don’t have space to grumble about what we don’t have. We smile more. We laugh more. Gratitude keeps our minds more pliable and young.
What have your beliefs about aging been? How have they impacted your life? Leave me a comment, I’d love to know!
If you want a head start in your journey to becoming the person God created you to be, I’ve made some printable journal pages that are yours for free! You can click here to download those and use them each morning to really start your day off right!
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