“Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.”
-Betty Friedan
We all dread it at some point. We try our best to stall it and when we can’t, we’d all like to pretend it’s not there by covering it up in any way possible.
I’m talking about aging.
I remember a very specific moment last year exactly a day after my birthday. I was shaving and noticed a couple of gray hairs in my beard. Up until then my follicles, on my face or otherwise, were jet black.
The short-term solution was quite obvious. I simply snipped those hairs away. But the long-term appeared to be more of a quandary: to dye or not to dye? In the end, I decided to go with the latter and let Mother Nature take its course.
Cut to one year later and those gray hairs a bit more noticeable today. I can’t just snip them away. If I keep a beard and choose not to dye, they are going to be there. But I’m perfectly okay with that.
Because age is just a number after all, isn’t it?
There are so many quotes out there, which in some shape or form suggest that as long as your thinking is young, age doesn’t matter. On the other hand, it’s a biological fact that we our bodies and health change for the worse as we get older.
So are life coaches, psychologists and motivational speakers wrong?
I don’t think so. Like anything else in life, to reach an ideal state of mind there needs to be a healthy balance of cognition. That’s the balance between associating age with optimism and still being aware of the reality of Mother Nature.
As we get older, our bodies do indeed get weaker. We’re more susceptible to illnesses. We obviously aren’t able to do things at the age of eighty that we could do in our twenties.
At the same time, that’s no reason for despair. We may have to change our some of our approaches to certain things when we’re older. But we shouldn’t deem every single task or endeavor impossible without even trying solely because of our age.
Especially when we have terrific examples contradicting that theory:
Athlete Charles Eugster, who passed away at the age of ninety-seven, started bodybuilding at eighty-seven and went to on to win many medals and competitions. Eugster was not different from anyone else his age in that his body at that age had considerably weakened and had a “pancake butt” as he himself stated in an interview.
Eugster admitted that entering bodybuilding at that age did involve a lot more intricacies than it would at a younger age. His diet and exercise had to be carefully calculated accordingly.
And yet, in spite of all the hurdles, he went on to set records in more than eleven different competitions.
Eugster’s philosophy was very similar to the ideas expressed in this post. He accepted the fact that getting older brings on many challenges but never let that kill his enthusiasm and determination.
Age is not “just a number.” You may not always be “as old as you feel.” By the same token, getting older is not a roadblock; it’s just a speed bump. You may have to slow down a little to cross it but there is a road ahead of it.
As I mentioned earlier, today is almost one year since I had my first gray hair(s) ever. As I type this on March 2, tomorrow I turn 38 years old. While my body is certainly a little different biologically, my determination and zeal is still the same as ever.
Much like Eugster, I’m a bit more cautious when it comes to things like my diet. But my goals to remain fit and healthy are the same. I’m not expecting any less of myself health wise simply because I’m older.
How do you view the process of getting aging? Do you feel certain ambitions and goals must be avoided with age or do you share Eugster’s spirit? Is there anything you miss doing when you were younger? Share your thoughts and experiences by commenting below on our secure servers.
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