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GREAT BIG EXPECTATIONS
Saturday Mar. 18, 2017
Charles Dickens wrote: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Every day that is true. Facts and circumstances vary, but does our viewpoint change – do we see it our way, someone else’s way, or in every possible way?
Methinks we see it OUR way from where we are in life without examining life – our own or anyone else’s – from any other angle. I think that represents an enormous loss of opportunities, something I’m trying to correct in my life because I have so much yet to do, so much I want to learn and grow and there is so much less time now …
Future planning, figuring out where we are going in life, or next week – easy when we are young. At 10 or 20 or 30, for those with good health –that’s nearly everyone – no end in sight, band of smooth highway out in front of us. Seems endless, boundless, a wealth of opportunities, but most lack a sense of urgency. For the most part I believe ‘building lives, creating families and evolving careers’ gets in their way for grasping opportunity or feeling any need for urgency …
We get older. At 40 or 50 or 60, for those with good health – still, most of us – there is fear and perception that limitless road no longer exists, opportunities are scarce and ‘getting a little older’ is a hindrance rather than advantage. In business, careers – every endeavor, there is a sense that younger, smarter and hungrier folks with better skills, better education and a greater sense of urgency will beat us to whatever brass ring we stretch for …
All that?
Nonsense.
Poppycock, rubbish, bull-feathers.
Tommy rot.
Here is why:
Life truly begins at 65 (and my apologies to all those under 65 I may be offending) ~ no, not retirement, but excitement. Without shackles or anyone having high expectations of us we are free. Free and clear. Fee to explore. Free to change. Free to dare boldly where no one has stepped before. We are invisible – way under the radar screen. Nobody notices much things that we do, how we make choices or chase new opportunities.
When I was young I was advised to ‘find the niche nobody is in’, and own it. Make it yours. I’m less concerned about exclusivity – happy to collaborate and co-opt others. I’m more amenable to teaming. I’ve been wondering if I’m alone, typical – or something different. I skipped having a mid-life crisis so I’m not sure I’ve come to this place via anyone’s notion of ‘typical route’. I’m unlikely to park at the side of any road often or for long …
I’m on a journey of undetermined length or direction – but I know I’m going. Not sure where it will take me, but I sense I’m on my way. I have a daunting project in mind – some have said it is too big, too ambitious and rather impossible. The more I focus on it I’m of the view that it is not ambitious enough, not big enough and I see it now as ‘no end in sight, band of smooth highway out in front of me – endless and boundless, with the wealth of opportunities’. Only, now, I absolutely have a sense of urgency …
When does life truly begin?
Some will say, at conception. Some, at birth.
Mark Twain said: The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
Many of us, I believe, never figure out why. And, sadly, too many of us never consider the question until it is too late to do anything with that knowledge …
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