Have you ever wanted to do something,
learn something, or go somewhere, but stopped yourself from doing
it by telling yourself you were too old? People have many different
ways of telling themselves this sorry tale. It stems from a belief
that we as human beings have a limited amount of time in which to
learn and experience life, and that -- past a certain point -- we
must be finished with the learning process.
You've probably
heard the list of excuses from someone, if you haven't been telling
them to yourself. They sound like this: "I'm too old to learn."
"I'm too far along in my career to change now." I don't have enough
time left to become really good at it." "I'm too old to
try something new." "I should have done that when I was younger."
"I don't have the energy left to try that." "I'm too old to look
that foolish."
What many people
fail to realize is that these phrases all have something in common;
each one is a form of ageism. Instead of its being visited upon you
by someone else, however, you are visiting it upon yourself. How's
that for irony? You believe you are too old for things, and so you
prevent yourself from ever experiencing them at all. You are
depriving yourself; no one else is doing it to you. You are the
victim of your own self-sabotage in the Life Experience Department.
Most people understand ageism to be the act of
discrimination
against persons
of a
certain
age
group. That is certainly the workplace definition. But ageism
carries a second, more insidious, definition; one that is far more
powerful. Ageism can also mean a
tendency
to
regard
older
persons
as debilitated,
unworthy
of
attention,
or
unsuitable
for
employment. While the word has only been part of our
lexicon since around 1965-1970, it is the more powerful of the two
precisely because it encompasses our view of ourselves. It includes
all the feeble fables we tell ourselves that hold us back from
attempting to do the things we've always dreamed of doing.
To accept the idea that one is too old
to learn something new is to see oneself as debilitated in some way,
or as unworthy of the time and attention it would take to have that
experience. This is how we make ourselves the victims of ageism,
before anyone else has a chance to do it.
The truth is, we are never finished
learning. The whole point of being alive on this planet is not
merely to take up space and use up oxygen; it is to make the most of
ourselves that we possibly can -- for only then can we live up to
our fullest potential.
So go ahead, open up that treasure
chest of dreams you have yet to act upon. This is the moment; now
is the time to begin becoming good at whatever you wish. You will
begin to be better at it only after you have taken the first step,
which is making up your mind to give it a try. What have you really
got to lose? You already know what you will lose if you never start
-- you lose the chance that the dream will ever become a reality
because you refuse to take it out of the box.
You can choose to leave it locked up,
of course. We are always free to make that choice. And if you
leave it in there long enough you will, one day, run out of time --
when your life comes to its end. I guess then you will have the
comfort of saying, "See, I told you I was too old to do
that." Eventually, you will be right about that; but what cold
comfort to be able to say that when your days are done.
