075: Why Not Defy the Expectations of Aging?
Whoever said that expectations are set in stone?
Take aging for instance.
There are certain expectations that accompany every decade you enter throughout your life.
"Millennials (30 somethings) are so entitled!"
"GenXrs (40s plus) are becoming their parents!"
"Boomers (60s and then some) are out of touch!"
It's no wonder that you settle into whatever aging era you're in feeling somewhat trapped by cultural norms.
I say it's time to defy the expectations of aging.
There's not a one-size-fits-most (OSFM) for aging - how you age and how you feel about aging is all on you!
I choose to believe that defying the expectations that culture or others place on you regarding age norms is what actually gives you energy to flip-the-script and begin living by your own rules or expectations - whatever decade you're in.
- Expand your horizons
- Break the mold
- Stay resilient
Expand your horizons
Believing you're over-the-hill as they say, is such a limiting perspective.
Worse, its an ideology that you might be tempted to live by as you hit that certain age (what that age is...I'm not sure).
Maybe it's the age when you start seeing life as a downhill slide into irrelevance or when you feel like you have one-foot-in-the-grave.
Life according to those limiting beliefs is no way to live.
On the other hand, living with your eyes on the horizon increases hope.
There are still important and valuable things to be done with every sunrise.
Over-the-hill should simply mean you have opportunity to gain momentum on the downward slope instead of living as though you're sliding into oblivion.
I read an article this week that highlighted the fact that 93 year-old Dan Rather, the former CBS anchor, has a newsletter he routinely publishes on the Substack online platform.
The one who highlighted Rather's writing prowess at 93 years of age said, "Reading the article, you wouldn't have a clue that he is 93." 1
33, 43, 53, 63, or...93 - those ages are merely numbers so why allow them to discourage you from the opportunities to expand your horizons?
Break the mold
Unfortunately, there are supposed expectations that accompany aging.
For example, as you age you're supposed to be:
- Clueless about technology
- Stuck in the past
- Have trouble remembering or understanding things
- Have difficulty hearing or seeing things
- Not doing anything important or valuable (as in the previous point) 2
I call those out and call out anyone who shoves you or me into that mold of supposed expectations.
Don't know about you but:
- I'm fairly tech savvy for my age.
- I stay relevant with culture in my tastes in music, media, books, and pop-culture talking points.
- I live according to certain goals and arrange my routine tasks accordingly.
- I have a somewhat age-defying vision for the next 30+ years of my life.
Join me!
It's time to break the mold that yourself or others place you in as you age.
Stay resilient
Resilience is that quality that enables you to exceed your limitations and become stronger in the process.
Some might call it grit.
But however you claim the trait, aging successfully requires that you stay resilient.
What is successful aging?
Good question.
For our purpose here, it's the capacity to, once again, break the mold that you might feel forced into simply because you've aged out of what others consider to be a more relevant era of life.
Choosing to stay resilient means you might not like the changes that age brings but you roll with them nonetheless.
- You push forward when you're tempted to tap-out.
- You develop age-appropriate stamina through movement and taking action instead of being sedentary.
- You seek solutions to setbacks instead of laying down and taking what life dumps on you.
When it comes to aging, what's expected and what's possible could be two different things - the choice...that's up to you
- Expand your horizons
- Break the mold
- Stay resilient
Press on...
Eddie
Sources:
1 - https://medium.com/crows-feet/the-things-were-supposed-to-be-d18f57410ab7
2 - https://medium.com/crows-feet/the-things-were-supposed-to-be-d18f57410ab7