Top 10 Things you get better at with age:
Because growing older doesn’t mean the ride has to be less exciting.
Have you ever been afraid of getting older, thinking you’ll never be able to do the same things as you used to?
Well I have.
Here are Top 10 things that you’ll be able to master as you grow older, and wiser.
1/ Giving Love, and receiving Love
You get better as you learn from the experience you get through the years. You learn that love can be a burning feeling but that it also has a blunt edge as well. From losing the ones you love to failing at keeping your boat afloat, you’ll realise that there’s nothing stronger and more meaningful than a loved-one.
Being able to give and receive Love without any compromise might be the hardest balance to reach. It is a subtle harmony between self-confidence and trust.
Question is…is this perfect balance even achievable?
2/ Empathy
With the years comes experience as they say. The good, the bad, and the outright ugly. But you will learn from it, you will be able to use it to your benefit and overcome hardships. You’ll learn that every single one of us is fighting his own fight, and that there is no victory without a fight. You’ll learn to respect your differences, your weaknesses and your life stories. You will be able to share the pain of loss, of failure and disillusion with more ease because you know how it feels, and there’s no way you’ll ever be able to forget.
3/ Focus
This reminds me of a time when I was taking freediving classes in a 35-meter deep pool, and I watched as a hefty man around his 70s with a huuuuge belly, a Santa Claus beard and a sexy speedo sat down on the edge of the pool and started “breath-ups” in preparation for his dive. And then, slowly, peacefully, he dove down. It was unbelievably gracious to watch him glide down, like a bird playing with a gust of wind, but a lot slower. Down and down he went, falling asleep in his dive, as though gravity was just a far-fetched memory. He gently touched the bottom at 35 meters, turned around, and graciously swum back up towards the surface. I remember his face, so calm that you could’ve sworn he was deep asleep.
From that day onwards, I learnt that as you age you have the opportunity to master your mind and body like an experienced cowboy tames a wild horse. You understand that the relationship between body and soul is one, and should not be forced upon nor taken lightly. You are ONE, and only YOU have the power over your mind and body.
4/ Finding ways of expressing yourself
Poetry, music, writing, you’ll be able to practice whichever craft you chose and give less importance to the opinion of others.
You’ll find pleasure in silence, you’ll find inspiration in melodies, you’ll find yourself at the tip of a pencil or at the strum of a chord.
You’ll find freedom in the process, freedom in the creativity, in the colours and in the shapes.
You will learn that you don’t start painting because you want to collect your own paintings, but rather because you have too many colours rushing through your veins and it needs a way out. You don’t sing because you want to record an album, you sing because that’s your own way of breathing.
5/ Letting go
Life is about the opportunities you’re ready to follow, not the weight you carry around, trying to settle it somewhere. Life is about attracting the gems around you so that you can shine a little brighter, and spread your light a little further. People will come, people will go.
You will learn that whatever happens, the Sun will always rise and the Sun will always set. Your life is yours alone to control, and no one should run it in your stead. This applies to people as well as to material things. By letting go of people and of useless “stuff”, your mind will be lighter and more focused on the quality of the moments you live.
6/ Caring about Family
Family is really all we have and nothing is going to replace that. Not friends, not lovers, not dogs. And not social media, definitely not social media.
Through the hardest hardships and highest highs, the strongest support you will get is kin. Years will test this support, again and again. But by preserving the safe-haven of Family you are securing a treasure that might one day save your life.
7/ Dealing with failure
Realising that it’s not about how far you go but about you stand back up and face adversity is the best of lessons that passing years will teach you. It’s not about how hard you get beaten down but rather how often you get back up. I strongly believe that failure is a better teacher than success. How many times will you make the same mistake if you lost everything once already?
My most beautiful victories were based on my most painful failures.
8/ Inspiring
With the years passing by comes the experience of life. Good or bad, you’ll be able to take lessons from it and share your take on it, share your advice and encourage to stay off the beaten path, however broad that path may be.
You’ll encourage others to become a better version of themselves, to face their own fight and overcome their fears. To undestand that the most memorable lives are not lived behind a computer monitor or on a living room couch, but after that first step out of the front door, and after these first few words said to a stranger.
9/ Self-Confidence
I believe that confidence increases as the years pass by, most of the time. I know, I might be wrong but hear me out. Some of the factors making you lack confidence may be:
Your physical appearance / Your professional career / Peer pressure
Years passing by will demonstrate that:
The word beauty means different things to different people / You never get a well-earned promotion for biting your nails instead of saying what you think out loud / Being part of a sheep flock is never a good idea when running towards a cliff
10/ Endurance Sports
Yep, you read that right. As you age, you improve in sports. Okay, maybe not soccer or the 100m sprint, but rather endurance sports that require focus, patience and stamina.
Take Ironman Triathlon as an example, all world champions are well over their thirties when they step on the highest step of the podium. Take marathon swimming, the average age of a Channel swimmer is 35 years old. Not 25. 10 years older than that. Take offshore sailing, which require a perfect knowledge of your mental and physical capacities as you face sleeping periods of 15 minutes to keep an eye on the boat. Vendée Globe skippers are 44 years old on average…talk about being old sea dogs!
So here you are, the top 10 things that you will able to improve over the next 30, 40, 50 years (and more!).
I hope it will make you realise that there’s nothing to stop you from doing what you want to do with your life. That the purpose of your Life is only clear when you will be able to turn around and say:
“Oh, what a beautiful adventure it was…”
