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I turned 50 last year. I'm biased to glass half full rather than half empty. I noticed a lot of my friends mentally checked out around their forties already. I'
by jillesvangurp 1y ago
I turned 50 last year. I'm biased to glass half full rather than half empty. I noticed a lot of my friends mentally checked out around their forties already. I've been trying to not do that. Fifty is just a number. It doesn't mean anything. There's less left of your life every day after you get born. Some die young, some die old. I could die tomorrow, I could go on existing for another fifty years. I'm an optimist. So, glass half full and plenty left to do and experience. There is a bit of urgency to get shit done because the clock is ticking. You do get more aware of that as you get older.
You don't really get wiser as you age. Just scarred by experience. It takes me longer to do some of the things I used to do quicker. And I'm also doing things that I wouldn't have been able to do earlier in my life because you learn a lot as you progress through the years. It's a mixed bag.
I actually like what I do professionally. So, I'm not looking forward to retiring. I'm actually kind of dreading having to do that because of physical limitations or being regarded too old by others. I plan to stay active as long as I can. Regardless of financials. What comes after that is basically waiting to die. Nice if you can make that enjoyable and stretch it a bit. But for most people that's not a huge part of their life, or the best. Or what defines them for others when they are gone.
- WalterBright 1y agoI like Benjamin Franklin's approach for making lists of his faults and then working to correct them. The idea is to reach perfection on the day of your death. I work on my list of faults every day.
- betterThanTexas 1y agoDoesn't sound very healthy, tbh. Also takes an extraordinary amount of courage to be that confident in your own assuredly-flawed judgement. All it takes is one person changing your mind to ruin your life.
- WalterBright 1y agoSorry, that doesn't make much sense.
- betterThanTexas 1y agoWhich part is the antecedent of "that" here? I made three distinct claims. Happy to explain more if you clue me in to what doesn't make sense.
- WalterBright 1y agoI don't get how one person ruins my life by changing my mind.
- betterThanTexas 1y agoWell, if you've devoted a significant part of your life to neurotically analyzing your own actions in order to comply with a certain set of values, changing one of those values will naturally imply reevaluating of much of your life. I think realistic expectations of yourself for not living up to your own values is important to maintain basic resilience. Not to mention, we all have behavior that's fundamentally contradictory to our values. At least, IMO.
- WalterBright 1y agoNot at all. It's more like finding bugs, fixing bugs. It would be foolish to not course-correct when realizing you're making a mistake.