What’s The Best Thing About Getting Older?
While I know I am not like the woman pictured, I totally agree with her. We are as old as we think and feel we are, and as I move along in my seventies, I find that I am not as bothered about a lot of things that used to get me riled up.
Make it stand out
As Bugs Bunny notes, I am living MY life, no-one else’s and one of the best things about getting older is that I get to please myself, and only please others as and when I choose.
Let’s start at home. I have been with my husband for over 25 years and while I love him and truly appreciate him, I have a list. You know, the list of things that he doesn’t do, and those that he does which I would rather he didn’t. I could share the list and I am sure you would laugh as you identify with some of them shared by your own spouse, but instead I want to say that with the years, I have been able to put those things on the list into the “unimportant” category. Some of them I deal with, most I let lie there on the list, untouched.
Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years. Simone Signoret
Two of my friends have lost their husbands in the past year and I see the pain they are in – particularly one of them whose relationship was 51 years in length. I would think it must feel like losing an arm or leg, some part of your body. What an adjustment. So while I have a list, it means so much less today, and I quickly move to how grateful I am to have a partner who is loving, caring and would do anything (well, almost) for me. Someone I can vent to, someone to go to a museum with, to enjoy a nice dinner out.
I recently went to a get together of 7 Wise Women, of which I was honored to be a part. One of the women got upset by how another of the women was being and let me and the organizer know that she would not return, saying that she doesn’t need people like that in her life at this point. I too have let people go. I think it is really okay to choose who you want to hang out with. While family members may be a little more difficult to let go of, although not impossible if needed, others in your life that rub you the wrong way or you just do not enjoy, it is time to de-clutter your social circle. Friends brighten our lives and add richness to its fabric, so like those old clothes in the closet, if someone doesn’t fit, let them go.
One woman I met a year or so ago seemed really nice and we started to do things together, but it quickly became apparent that she had some traits that really didn’t sit well with me, so I graciously let her know that I was moving on. Looking through your friends and acquaintances, is there someone you really don’t want to be with any more?
Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. Oprah Winfrey
Speaking of de-cluttering, I have been loving letting go of bags and boxes and collections of things. Clothes and shoes that would look better on a 40-year-old, furniture that we just do not need, that extra set of 18 places of chinaware. I have also been spreading the gospel of minimizing to my friends, urging them to give to charity or give me consumables if they really feel like they must give me a gift on my birthday or any other time. My kids, like so many others’ children, do not want our treasures. They have their own.
Being calmer has come with age also. I don’t get my knickers in a twist the way I used to. There are so many lovely ways to spend my time, I don’t want to waste any of it by being upset at people and circumstances that I probably can’t do anything about anyway. I am still ambitious, still care about my appearance, but above both of them is the serenity of gratitude for all I have, all I am, all I have already accomplished, and all that I look forward to doing and being. As the British say, “Keep Calm and Carry On.” Will you join me?
When you are ready to take this on, there are ways we can help.
With Personal Coaching or membership in Feisty & Fearless Over Fifty Circles, you will
Identify just what you want your retirement to look like
Relief from the uncertainty of retirement
Effective tools and information to move forward
Questions that may seem intense, and will bring forth transformative answers
Tasks to take on between each session to help you achieve the results you are looking for
Build a life of joy, fulfillment and satisfaction
A roadmap for Living the Good Life
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