Age is a very elusive reality to engage realistically. Flexibility and passion are two ingredients essential to keep life interesting and challenging. We know that these necessary attributes begin to wane as you grow older.
Lack of flexibility and long held comfort zones are the enemy. It is hard to imagine what a grip these two personality traits have on your behavior until you confront the need to make your last years productive. The good news is that having to deal with this reality is not new to us. All of our life we have confronted the same issues in one form or the other. What makes it different this time is that there is less time to do something about it.
It is easier when you are younger. In the earlier years the need to grow is thrust upon you in order to survive. You have responsibilities and most of us try to meet them. Conditions often force us to change if we are to meet out goals. Necessity is the oil that lubricates the process. Often there is not that much time to think about it. This is the mechanism that begins to fail as you grow older. When you are younger you must meet the situation or fail and when you are young total failure is not an option.
I say total failure is not an option because partial failure is. Too often we settle for partial success since total success simply requires too much from us. And for most of us partial success allows us to get by. Most of us will live our lives in the twilight zone of partial success – enough to get by, but always knowing that we never lived up to our potential.
Eventually, our personal fulfillment will be determined by our choice for total or partial success. What then defines these two arenas? What is the ingredient that defines the difference? Is it defined genetically or is determined by other causes such as home or school or some lack within the person’s self esteem that demands it be corrected by total success. Or is the whole process simply an accident of nature?
I have no answers. I can only ask you to think of your life and where you are now. While you still have time enter the cold reality of the truth about yourself and see how you react to it. Good luck!
Brother Franco, Head of all Pizzaonian Monasteries
http://giovanniandfranco.com We also recommend: "The Pizzaonian"
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