I truly believe that your age is a mindset.
Many people don’t seem to understand what I mean when I say this. I never identify with my chronological age because to do so, in my opinion, defines how I should behave and how I should think. When I was younger, I’d always hear people suggest that “kids have so much energy”. Honestly, I don’t think this is true. I think kids have the same energy as adults. I just believe kids have a different mindset with regards to how they use their energy. A young child prioritizes fun and play. He can go outside for hours, run away, play tag, roughhouse, play sports. When he comes home, he tires himself out for the day despite it only being 6 or 7 pm. Or perhaps he needs a nap. Then, after an hour or so, his energy is back. Adults aren’t much different though. Plenty of adults, regardless of age, can wake up much earlier than kids tend to wake up. They can work hard labor jobs from sun up to sunset.
The output of energy is more or less the same although an adult may exert an intermediate amount of energy over a longer duration of time while a kid may exert an immense level of energy quickly, over a very short period of time. Adults are strange compared to kids though. We confuse energy for mindset. Adults, in my opinion, lose the curiosity of their child counterparts and fall into negative patterns that involve a sedentary lifestyle. We de-prioritize activities like tag, hide and seek, sprinting, sports. We aren’t incapable, we’ve just determined these acts to be childish and, in doing so, have stigmatized these activities to our detriment. I'm not necessarily suggesting that games are what determine one's age. What I am suggesting is that the behaviors your enact and your daily mindset determine your age.
We think of an elderly person and imagine: Feeble, slow, weak, vulnerable. We think of a young person and think: Energetic, naive, fun-loving. In my mind, a 7-year old that is lethargic, refuses to explore life, shuts himself or herself off is an old person. The 77-year old that is open to new activities, is curious about life, consistently moves is a young person. Their habits and mindset are the determining factors. In my opinion, this is truly what it means to grow old--losing the lust for fun and for the enjoyment of life that we all had as children.
Age is a mindset. It’s a prison of our own design. I hear a 28-year-old say, “man, I’m getting old”. Wrong, you’ve allowed your mindset to grow old from the conditioning of society. If you truly wanted, you could participate in childlike activities. But you’re afraid of judgment, You’re afraid to seem immature in front of your work peers or your social peers. For this reason, I never think much about my age. And this is how I believe we can all maintain that seemingly unlimited amount of energy we had in our youth.
Do you agree? Do you think age is chronological or mental?
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