Asks the 31-year-old woman, hula hooping in her living room.
I had a conversation with someone a while back and they said to me that if they were ‘younger’, the way in which they would approach the situation in question would be different and this got me thinking how heavily our age impacts our life decisions.
Whether it be job related, relationship related, child related, family related, clothes shopping related… How many decisions in your life are swayed one way or another because of the date on your birth certificate?
I’m not sure if it is the career path I chose when I was younger – dancer, or my upbringing - anyone who knows my Dad will vouch for the fact the man has always told me to go against the grain of society and do what I want for as long as I can…
So, I did… I have worked as a professional Dancer for over ten years, never really knowing when the next contract was going to appear, living paycheque to paycheque.
I then arrived in my Thirties with this strange sense of comfort.
I dreaded turning 30. I felt such pressure from ‘society’ to have a mortgage, kids, be engaged, have a clear career path. But then when it actually happened, I had this weird sense of clarity. I knew what I wanted and what I didn’t want & I became very comfortable with the decisions I had made.
This was also HEAVILY INFLUENCED by a chapter in Vishen Lakhiani’s book ‘The Code of the Extraordinary Mind’, which asks you to question the ‘BRULES’ (bullsh** rules), that society places upon us. In a nutshell, it just asks you to question yourself, if you are feeling pressure to do something and you really don’t want to, why should you?? If it doesn’t serve you, drop it.
There is ALWAYS going to be excuses that you can’t do something. I can’t do this because X, Y, Z. But know that you can do anything you want. LITERALLY, ANYTHING, if you REALLY want it! Go for it. What is the worst that can happen? You fail. Learn. Grow. Change tactics. Try again.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
- Albert Einstein's
We get one life & it goes SO quickly, please don’t let your age be the reason you don’t try things. Age is just a number and I wholeheartedly feel you are as young as you feel. I know this from being surrounded by so many people in their thirties living the lives THEY want, and they genuinely look 21. I am not talking about myself; I am talking about dancers and coaches who are so passionate about what they do! It really makes all the difference.
Two EXTREME narratives people carry with them from childhood are as follows –
“You’ll never amount to anything” and “You can be anything you want to be.”
This goes for anything in life. People tend to be too afraid to take chances for fear of failure but the most noteworthy people in history talk about how many times they failed before they finally succeeded and on top of this fear of failure people tend to add the line – ‘I am too old for that’. Do not let your age or a fear of failure get in the way of you going for your dream.
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
-Henry Ford