This week, I had the privilege of being interviewed on Sarah Pittendrigh’s Formidable over Forty podcast.  I’ve known Sarah for a number of years now and admire her straightforward approach to life and love that she is helping other female founders push through their blocks to live a life they love. I’ll drop a link at the bottom of this blog in case you’d like to have a listen to the podcast.

Whilst I was being interviewed, I explained that I very much see getting older as a privilege and one that I embrace and celebrate as each decade passes.

Because, I don’t want to scare you, but getting older is pretty inevitable…

In fact, it happens every single day, without you even noticing most of the time.

Obviously we all know that the clock stops for us at some point, but we tend not to consider that most of the time either.

It’s like every day, we’re playing Simon Sinek’s infinite game, running our little hearts out in a game that will never end.  Then one day, someone changes it to a finite game that has limited time left to play, and it’s at that point, we realise that we didn’t do half the things we wanted to in the time we had.

We also realise that all the time we spent worrying about being on the pitch and running wasn’t necessarily time well spent, especially when it came at the expense of other more soul-filling things.

You see, we usually regret what we didn’t do more than what we did do…

And here’s another one, life really is what you make it…

So, let’s get back to my refining 50’s.

A long time ago, I decided to enjoy playing the infinite game, and rather than seeing the passing of the years as a sad deterioration in function, I embraced it.

I began to think about the benefits of ageing, the bonus of accumulated wisdom and being inspired to grow and flourish more over the next decade, rather than expecting to be pushed out.

Because ultimately we will be what we believe we are.

I choose to believe that every transition we make in life gives us a chance to learn what defines us at that point and to choose to refine it for our upcoming journey – rather than becoming the archetype that people have in mind for that decade.

Very often, people talking about dreading turning 30, 40, 50 whatever the number is – it’s not just a geriatric affliction and I think it’s almost been trained into us to do that.

I was talking to a friend recently who was dreading turning 40 and when I asked her why a few times, it turned out that her Mum had made a big negative deal about turning each decade so it was almost a learnt behaviour.

When we chatted and she thought about the benefits of the upcoming decade, she was actually excited about what was to come – more freedom, more time with her husband, more time not caring as much about what other people think…

So, as the photo caption says, change is a process, not an event – and it’s in our power to review and decide how we react to big birthdays and big life changes.

I know that it’s not always that easy to be positive and the changes we go through at this age can take their toll, but it was ever thus. In every decade there is something that adds a layer of difficulty, whether it be confidence in starting your career, juggling home and work and/or caring for elderly parents. Every year that passes needs some sort of resilience from us at some point.

So, whatever age you are, why not look ahead with hope and optimism and search for the things that will delight you and focus on them. 

With every year, you gain experience and wisdom, so you too have the opportunity to make ageing about gradually becoming a better version of you.