You shouldn’t be growing worse with age, you should be getting better, like a bottle of wine.
As you grow older, your anxiety, stress, lack of direction, and lack of passion shouldn’t grow with you. Each year should show improvement in mind, body, and spirit.
Writing from the perspective of a Stoic-in-training, each year should show an improvement in your ability to realize what you can and cannot control, then focusing more on the things you can control.
Figuring out a career path that you actually enjoy won’t happen if you stay in one place, the place you can’t stand. Finding hobbies that put you into the flow state and inspire you comes from trying things, not from sitting on your phone and watching TV. Mental fortitude and clarity won’t appear on their own – you can’t expect to wake up one day and be happy, grateful, and motivated.
If there’s something in your life you don’t enjoy, that makes you unhappy, or something you want to change, do something about it. Don’t brush it aside and hope it solves itself. Don’t go on living the same routine if you know you can do better. Stop choosing bad habits when you know something else will work better.
You don’t have to be taking giant leaps every month or becoming someone unrecognizable each year, you just have to improve and be better than you were before. Pick up small habits like journaling, meditating, eating one healthy meal a week, reading 10 pages a day, etc.
Start focusing more on yourself and the things that make you happy. Discover the bad habits you want to replace and start working on them. Stop making excuses and pushing things off. If you feel like you’re getting worse with age – mentally, physically, or spiritually – it’s a sign that something needs to change. So change it, however slowly and incrementally you need to. Just don’t sit around and wish for better.
July 1, 2022
