Weekly Challenge # 119: Act (on) Your Age

Instead of carrying around your old age, your young age, your middle age as a burden--something to be suffered...realize and acknowledge that your age presents you with some unique advantage.  Identify it and then act on that advantage.

Many of you know (since I usually announce to groups I am facilitating) that I only work with smart people.  :)  And smart people, of all people, really know how to make things hard for  themselves...they really know how to struggle.  (Hence the beginning of the Struggle Less, BE More set of strategies).

"Not acting your age" is one way that smart people make life harder than it needs to be, because by doing so, they totally disregard the advantage that their age brings them.

Some Examples of Not Acting Your Age:

- you're 24 and have a comfort with navigating the online frontier of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and del.icio.us.  Instead of seeing it as a set of skills that put you at a competitive advantage with potential employers, you spend most of your interviews acting like you're 48 and well experienced in corporate financing.  It's good to be 24.

- you're 47 and fathering a newborn.   Sure, you're tired all the time, so you spend your time wishing you were 28 with more energy, forgetting that you're an experienced father with an ability to write, and the connections to get you work about fatherhood into the hands of editors.

- you're 63 and thinking about retirement.  With the "help" of friends, you're acting like you're 88 and ready to call it permanent quits.  You're forgetting that you could be primed for the next 25+ years to be the most fruitful and rewarding of your entire life.  You have decades of experience, the bruises to prove it, AND the wisdom of how NOT to do things. 

We often seem to be pining for another age.  We are 20 and want to be 30.  We are 50 and want to be 30.  etc. etc. etc.

Instead of wishing, we would do better to take advantage of WHO we are and WHEN we are.  That is your unique advantage right now.

Two Reasons (and warnings) Why This Challenge Is So Timely:

(1) YOU WILL NEVER BE YOUR CURRENT AGE AGAIN

There are things you can do and be at your age that will be less possible, less easy next decade...or next year.  There is energy you have in your thirties that you won't have in your forties, etc.  So the window of opportunity for certain things IS slowly closing.  Sorry/glad to have to remind you.

(2)  ONLY YOU HAVE THE UNIQUE SET OF EXPERIENCES AT YOUR AGE

Which means YOU can take advantage of the juxtaposition of WHO you are and WHEN you are.  And, there is urgency here, because time is the great equalizer:   If you have more experience than the average 32 year old, by the time you are 38, more of your peers will have the same experience.  If you have more energy than most 55 year olds...by the time you are 65, your energy level will be closer to your peers.

This is all to point out that advantages you have now, aren't likely to remain advantages as time passes.  The time is now to act on them.

BOTTOM LINE:  Don't spend another minute worrying that you are not younger or older.  Instead, realize that WHO you are and WHEN you are (now) is a powerful combination for you to take advantage of.   What does your current combination of age, experience and ability give you a uniqe opportunity to create and live?  Wear your age as an advantage, not a burden.

BE more,

Tom

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POWER QUESTIONS:

1. What opportunities did I miss last decade because I forgot my age?
2. Am I guilty of acting too old or too young for my own good? 
3. What's the best thing for someone with your age, experience and ability to be doing?  Are you?

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Comments

[Edaline]

Good for people to know.

[Liron]

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