THE DECISION

“...I want to make a terribly important point. People decide to get old. I’ve seen them do it. It’s as if they’ve said, ‘Right, that’s it, now I’m going to get old.’ Then they become old. Why they do this, I don’t know.”
---Doris Lessing


Perhaps you’ve entered a time in your life when your strength or abilities have diminished. You were active in one pursuit or another your entire life, and now you‘re not as able (or completely unable) to continue those activities. It’s probably time to find a new purpose, a new reason for living a full life, and it’s time to find new opportunities which will cause you to stretch and grow.

Where do you begin? Begin with a decision. As Doris Lessing tells us, we decide to get old. That means we’ve got some control over this passage into the next 50 years.

As for me, about six years ago I decided that I’m not aging---I’m evolving. Don’t you just love the sound of that word?! Evolving, revolving, involving, solving and resolving not to “get old”. You can evolve until you die (and maybe even beyond that! But, that’s another book).

Here’s my idea---I’ve decided to be old one day a year when I go for my physical and the doctor says, “You know, at your age....you should, etc...”. The other 364 days a year when I’m not in the doctors office, I’ll put my energy into evolving! And here’s another idea. Gather up all your health statistics (cholesterol numbers etc.) and put them in a file. You know the statistics I’m talking about---those numbers that remind you you’re aging. Then visit your statistics once a year or so (unless your health really depends on another regimen). Remember, you have a choice----you can make the decision to put meaning and excitment in your life or you can decide to be old.