I am soon turning 63 years old. And, honestly, I am in a better place in life than ever. Which for a guy like me, with my choice of life and ambitions is rare. I talked to one of my old collegues last week, a guy who back in the days was globally famous. And ambition and see-me attitude was bigger in him than anyone I have ever met. He was then in his 40´s and family and the rest of life, came in a good second place for him. I understand him very much. The age of around 40 was the most productive and porfessionally best of my life. It has all been in decline since then. Same for him. Nowadays he felt:
“Irrelevant.”
He did not enjoy his age or life. It felt meaningless. After being in the limelight for such a long time, suddenly very few saw any need to hire him for lectures, work and media attention hardly existed. He had major problems navigating in this new world of influencers, TikTok and spread out media. Welcome to the club, I said.
He is not the only one I know from the old days, who is going thru this. In fact most of my old friends and collegues from this time feel the same. And one of the reasons, of course, is that this fact applies to everyone. By which I mean, once professional skills go into a decline in the mid-30`s. Once you reach 63 like me, you spend a lot of time just remembering names. A lot of peers are not happy with this. Science shows that very few Nobel prize winners made any major breakthru´s after 30. The same applies to tech wizards. Hence our culture of work hard young, collect riches and enjoy living on it later in life. Unfortunately, like my friend, who did exactly that, few turns out to be happy with later life.
And why do I share this?
Let me first say, I am very priviliged. I was lucky to have my girls late in life, so my decline was easy to see when they were born. I am also very good at screwing up life and turn good things into chaos. And then, I don´t think that I have really understood this fact. Fully. But I have understood you have to find other stuff, make some kind of a complete change, and live with the fact like you are not much of what you were at 40. I could definitely see that on the crossing of the Greenland Icecap in August last year. But I accepted that. Me not being as strong as the younger team members. But once over on the other side, I thought, woow, I did this at 62? I know I am not the only one, but very, very few of us over 60 continue to do these “things”. And I will continue, because it is so much fun. And with the right training, diet and life knowledge, it is possible.
Right now, I feel no sadness at all for my age. I just see the advantages. Like understanding everything is in a continous change, things can never be like they were before (Thank God for that!) and one has to move focus from oneself to others. Like being generous in every way you can be. Thinking of others before yourself. And enjoy your age.
I have also learned that putting friendships above yourself is also very beneficial. It makes you enjoy life to its fullest. I am lucky to have some of the most generous, kindest, wise and good friends one can have in life, who every day teaches me new things. And putting effort into all your relationships.
I am also happy to have a very life ambitious Hannah in my life who is exactly in that age of great changes. She keeps me on my toes!
I am sharing this to give perspective on life. It might, or might not, be of help.
Photo: Maria Pettersson
