Having the story that you need to slow down because you’re a certain age is just that, a story. Because if you take your story apart, you’ll realize that it comes from emotions tied to earlier experiences, media influences and observing others. When you look closer at the real data around aging, you may be surprised.
Do you know how many people over the age of sixty five are living in assisted living facilities? Only four percent. How many people over eighty-five, only ten percent. And over half of the eighty-plus crowd need some assistance to get through their days, while the other half is completely independent.
When it comes to you, one of the biggest determiners as to where you’ll end up is the attitude you take about it now. Or more succinctly, how you choose to live your life now.
We’re all aging, but we don’t have to act old.
When I was dating in my mid-fifties, I went out with a woman who told me about ten minutes into our first “date” that my jeans with stylish holes were too young for me and I looked foolish. And I said, “Are they too young for me or too young for you?” I had the choice to let her story steer me… and I chose not to.
Because if you think of your aging self as inferior to your younger self, you’re punishing your future self.
Ageism is the only “ism” (race, sex, etc.) we inflict upon on ourselves.