Embracing Ourselves at Fifty

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night jolted by the fact that I am now 50 years old. For a brief moment, I think it’s all just a big mistake, a cosmic joke, and that I am really still only 35.

I seem to be able to see my former selves so clearly at 3am…there I am at 22, rushing towards my first job, at 30, clueless and having my first child, and at 45, stumbling into midlife. I begin to wonder if I’ve wasted years, lost opportunities, missed beauty, missed the point, and I almost move into panic when an unexpected calm arrives and I suddenly know for certain that it’s all been grist for the mill, it’s all really been about growth.

My own growth is what I take with me into these golden years, it is the constant that I get to keep as time passes and youth fades. In the middle of the night, it becomes clear that I was right where I needed to be at each decade. I needed to be driven in my twenties to know how to relax at 50, to be surprised by the challenges of motherhood in my thirties, so that I could rise to the occasion and meet them, to wrestle with midlife so that I could learn to let go of one stage of life and enter another.

It’s so easy, here at middle age, to begin to pine for our youth, to have regrets, to think we missed the mark, to beat up on our younger selves.  While there is loss, and necessary grief for things past, maybe something bigger is also going on… maybe life is always moving us towards something and aging is that movement along a giant learning curve.

Maybe we get to learn compassion for those younger selves who were doing the best that they could and bringing us to where we are right now. Maybe 50 is a grand culmination of all of those selves who fought so hard to get here. And maybe I can wake up in the middle of the night with relief that I have made it to 50 and am not 35 anymore.

Written by Amy Ruhlin

I Am Me

I am me

I am not you. I don’t walk like you, I don’t talk like you, I don’t draw like you, I don’t write like you. I walk, talk, draw and write like me, because I am not you – I am me.

I am not you. I can’t sing like you, I can’t dance like you, I can’t laugh like you, I can’t dream like you. I sing, dance, laugh and dream like me, because I am not you – I am me.

I am not you. I don’t dress like you, I don’t smell like you, I don’t hear like you, I don’t see like you. I dress, smell, hear and see like me, because I am not you – I am me.

I am me. I might be big, small, short, tall, young, old, hairy or bald. I might be loud or quiet, sensible or silly. I might be some of these things or all of these things, be it past, present or future. I might be healthy, I might be sick, I might be slow, I might be quick – whatever I choose to be – and whenever I choose to be it – I am me.

I am not you – I am me.

You are not me – you are you.

I am me. You are you.

I know you are you and I know I am me. I know I am not you because I know I am me. You are different to me and that’s how it should be as you are you and I am me.

That’s how it should be – I am me.

I am me. I am me. I am me. You are you and I am me.

Congratulations on being you.

I am me. 

Written by Paul  http://www.mindmapinspiration.com

Be Your Own Fan Be Your Own Fan

It is the Monday after the Superbowl.  While scanning the TV stations and flipping through the radio channels this morning, it seemed as though everyone was discussing and analyzing (and analyzing and analyzing…) the football game.  Everyone is a Monday morning quarterback.

Come on, get a life!  Stop living your life through someone else.

Tom Brady does not care about your life.  Why should you invest so much emotional energy in studying his?

Instead of being a fan of someone else’s life, be a fan of your own life.

Be a Monday morning quarterback on what worked and what didn’t work last week…for your business.  Study your statistics to decide if you are moving in the right direction.  Invest in you and your greatness.

I invest my money in me: my education, the development of my business, the hiring of the right talent, personal development, etc.  I rarely invest my money in what others are doing.  In fact, I almost never buy stocks.  If I invest in me and my business, I am confident that in the long run I will have a higher return on my investment.

Start investing time, money and emotional energy in you and your business.

Don’t get me wrong.  I enjoy watching the New England Patriots (even when they lose).  It is entertaining and inspiring.  Their drive and determination always jazzes me up and has me perform better in my life.

But I would not call myself a fan of any sports team.

I prefer to be fanatical about my life; doing what I can to make it as amazing as possible.

[end of rant

Written by Steve Shapiro      http://www.steveshapiro.com/