People don’t need to dread getting older. There are many positives, such as caring less about people’s thoughts about you and appreciating what’s important.
Life can seem like one drama after another when we’re young. Navigating relationships is a minefield because we have no frame of reference.
We’ve chosen 17 of the best parts of getting older based on our experience traveling through the decades.
1. Life Is Too Short Not To Embrace Everything
When we’re young, our lives stretch ahead of us like a blank tapestry waiting to be filled with new experiences. However, we often take time for granted and forget we have a finite period on this earth.
As we age, we witness our parents’ health and mobility decline, and eventually, we lose them. Learn to appreciate every moment with those you love and stop wasting time on what or who doesn’t make you happy.
2. Adults Don’t Know What They’re Doing Either
As children, we think the adults have got their lives sorted out. We look up to them and might overlook their mistakes, especially as parents. We arrogantly assume we will do better, and then we grow up.
When we’re grown, we realize that most adults don’t have a clue about mastering life. Let’s not get started on relationships.
3. Everything in Life Is Transient
Do you remember your first break-up? It was like the world ended, right? Every problem, job loss, or relationship collapse feels like forever when we’re young. The brilliant news is that you eventually realize everything in life is transient.
Life moves on, regardless of how we feel or react to external events. It’s a relief. When you hit a bump in the road, you relax, knowing it will pass.
4. You Learn To Be Grateful
When our elders tell us that age brings wisdom, we may shrug it off as old-person stuff. However, we begin to understand the saying that you don’t appreciate what you have until you lose it.
As life repeatedly thumps you, you get back up, stronger, more mentally resilient, and grateful for the opportunity to keep going. You start appreciating the people who stick around, your job, your family, your friends, and good health.
5. Everything Eventually Works Out
Sometimes, as we age, we can become resistant to change. We buck against job loss, relationship break-ups, snarky friends, weight gain, accidents, ill health, and many other natural aspects of life.
As you age, you begin to appreciate that seemingly catastrophic events often lead to something infinitely better. You learn to stop resisting and accept life’s twists and turns.
6. Master One Thing Rather Than Being Mediocre at Many Things
Being a “Jack of all trades” is a natural process of youth as we experiment with jobs and hobbies to determine what we enjoy. Eventually, we notice the savvy people who became masters of one thing and achieved success.
Mastery is achievable when we direct our focus, energy, and time to one process. It can make it easier to get a well-paid job or achieve more from our hobbies.
7. You Don’t Have To Settle In Relationships
Nobody teaches us how to “do” relationships. For many of us, early relationships are like a messy road crash. We don’t know what to expect, what’s acceptable, and how to navigate another person’s quirks and foibles. Often, in youth, we stay in unhealthy relationships for too long.
The wisdom and experience of age teach us that we do not have to settle. We can choose to be with the “right” person.
8. Life Is Not a Romantic Comedy
If only life were like a romantic comedy where everyone lives happily ever after. What we eventually realize is that real life isn’t like that. Our relationships last longer than a couple of hours on screen, and making them work requires effort.
Sometimes, they’re messy and uncomfortable, and genuine love is worth more than the first heady rush of romance in its early stages.
9. You Learn To Make Time for What Matters
After leaving college and starting a career, we get swept up in our working lives. We want to build a reputation, get promoted, and be the best, but it often comes at a cost. We forget to phone our parents, nurture our friendships, or take time out for hobbies. There may be a pivotal moment where we suddenly realize what’s important and start making time for what genuinely matters.
10. Not Everyone Is Trustworthy and Honest
Without being cynical, getting older means encountering people who are less honest or trustworthy than you may have thought. We all hope people will do the right thing, but they often don’t.
Eventually, you develop a sixth sense, start weeding out the untrustworthy people in your life, and start seeking a tribe of honest, supportive people.
11. Mistakes Are Part of Growth
The Western world has stereotyped mistakes as failures. Consequently, we can turn ourselves inside out like a pretzel, trying not to make any mistakes. It’s an impossible quest, doomed to failure.
Making mistakes is part of life. It’s how we learn and grow. However, it can go wrong if we don’t learn from our mistakes and repeatedly do the same thing.
12. You Learn To Ask For Help
Going it alone is not bravado. It’s much easier to ask for help. You’re less likely to make mistakes and reach the goal quicker. Another consideration is that people like being asked to help, with the rare exception. It makes them feel important, needed, and valued.
Even asking a stranger for help is a positive move towards bringing new people into your life.
13. Your Beliefs Change
People with a growth mindset are typically happier than those with a fixed mindset, and the same goes for beliefs. You cannot expect to have the same beliefs at 40 as when you were 20. Life experiences shape us, and beliefs should shift and change as we grow. A belief is not a truth, not a fact.
We should always question the validity of our beliefs and whether they serve or harm our progress.
14. You Learn To Trust Your Gut
Some people say they don’t have intuitive feelings about people or circumstances, but it can develop with age. The trick is to learn how to listen to gut feelings and act upon them, even if you won’t know the outcome of your decision.
Learn to trust that gut reaction — it can help you avoid tricky situations and recognize opportunities.
15. You Are the Source of Your Happiness
This truism is something you realize as you get older. Genuine happiness comes from within. Nobody can “make” you happy or unhappy. It is a choice, a mindset, and an acceptance of self.
Expensive cars, lottery wins, a promotion, or an unexpected bonus make you happy for a short time, but it’s a fleeting moment.
16. Not All Friendships Are for Life
The experts say that friendships are for a reason, a season, or a lifetime, but what constitutes a lifetime? That friend you’ve had for 20 years? Friendships survive when we grow together.
If one friend surges ahead, the friendship is less likely to survive, and there’s little point trying to resurrect it. Eventually, we learn to accept friendships for what they are, no longer hanging onto them as a guaranteed lifeline.
17. You Accept Change
Change is inevitable as we age. We lose our grandparents and parents, start a family, launch a career, engage in new relationships, move house, navigate illness, and more.
Change is challenging if we get too comfortable with our routines and resist the new. Accepting change makes it easier to roll with the punches and embrace exciting opportunities.
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