WE DON’T ACTUALLY KNOW HOW OLD WE ARE
Last week, I celebrated my 29th birthday. I’ve entered the last year of my twenties. Wow.
One of my most self-destructive tendencies is comparing myself to others, particularly those close to me in age. How did they save enough for that house? He already owns his own business AND has four employees? Why don’t I have the following she has by now? You can imagine what comes after all this questioning. A deep, dark, mental hole of a bunch of ideas, sentences, successes I think, “I’ll never have that” by their age.
While sharing my fear of time (I talked about it on this podcast episode) with a mentor of mine, she pointed this idea out to me...
None of us actually know how “old” we are. She could live to 59. He could live to 100. They could live to 31. None of us know. We spend so much time planning, anticipating, stressing, wondering how… that we forget we have no idea when our time will be up.
You owe it to yourself and your life to live how you want now. Because watching others, wondering how, swiping through their lives on social media is only costing you time. And if there is one truth about age and time we all know, it’s that time is precious.
Age is a defining characteristic of human beings we all share. But we often forget each path to that age is vastly different than the next. This advice from my mentor helped put my comparison habit into perspective. It is waste of time to look at others and wonder how by their age they are doing X, Y and Z and when will I make it happen? Am I too old to try that? Am I too young to attempt this?
What’s meant to be
will be
when it’s meant to be.
In my 29th year, I am vowing to live life more aware of this comparison habit I have. I know I won’t be able to completely eradicate it, but I can make an effort to continue changing my perspective.
PROMPT
When was the last time you caught yourself comparing your life to someone else’s? What can you be proud of yourself for now?
Please feel free to share your answer with me in the comments below. It always feels good to write it out!
LISTEN to these three songs that inspire me when thinking about age and time.
