The power of hindsight.
You look back and think about all the things you could have accomplished if you’d just had your shit together. If you knew then what you know now, right?
Well, you didn’t.
And you couldn’t anyway—because the only way to know what you know now is by going through all the shit you went through then.
Next month I’ll be 42.
Forty. Two.
Egads.
Believe me, I’ve spent my share of time coming to terms with why and how my life didn’t turn out anything like what I’d thought back in high school. Then again, few of us grew up in households training us for the mundane realities of life in a debt-driven economy.
This is the foundation of mid-life crisis.
We leave high school with an artificial vision of what life could or should be. 20 years later, we realize a lot of that was bullshit. And not that our parents could have known better. They had access to even less information than we do.
The point is this. If you’re waking up to the idea there should be more to life than this—whatever that is—that’s a good thing. Feel like you could have accomplished so much more in your 20s or 30s or 40s? If only you knew then what you know now?
Guess what. You’ve got another 30, 40, 50, even 60-plus years left in you.
You know it now.
Time to get intentional.
Send it.
2 Comments
I’ve heard that the best thing about old age is it doesn’t last too long but I also spent a fair amount of my childhood around convalescent homes and in there maybe it does.
I can’t speak for my future self but right now there’s no crisis on my horizon. Side effect of growing up in a dumpster fire is I have no expectations. Side effect of seeing behind a lot of curtains is I have no role models. But that’s me.
You have a family and from what glimpses you share that looks like a beautiful life without any further qualifiers. That would be a beautiful life if you nailed potatoes to planks of wood for $11/hr.
Flip the dimmer on that rear view mirror, it’s just some kid with bad headlights back there.
I appreciate your perspective. And you are absolutely correct—even if I was nailing potatoes to wood for $11/hr, I would be happy with my life because of who comprises it. If I had to liquidate everything, move into an old, POS Winnebago, and live down by the river, I’d still be living the good life.
Pearl Jam had a good song about rearview mirrors. I think I’ll give it another play.