I'm too old or too young

Hey Everyone,

I've been reminded several times these past few months of a great advice I read from a book called "The Magic of Thinking Big" a few years ago. We tend to make excuses to ourselves when it comes to putting forth action. We all have great ideas and intentions but very few actually puts in the action. Some people have the "age" excusitis which will get you nowhere.

An example of someone with age excusitis is a person who we will call Stacy wants to change her career in a whole different direction but she feels she's too "old" to start now. She says, " I'd have to start from scratch. And I'm too old for that now. I'm 40."

The truth is it's never too late.

The book say's to look at it like this:
When does a man's productive life begin? Let's say 20. Then, when does a man's productive life end? Let's say they stayed in good shape and they love their job, so around 70 years old. So, a man's productive years stretch from 20 to 70. That's 50 years in between or half a century. So if Stacy's 40 she's only spent 20 years of her productive life. She has 30 more years left. In other words, she hasn't even reached the halfway point.

If you were Stacy will you spend another 30 years doing something you don't like to do or start what you love now and spend the remaining 30 years feeling more fulfilled?

It's not how old we are that's important but our attitude towards age that makes it a blessing or a barricade.

It's the same thing for the "I'm too young" age excusitis. A lot of young adults including myself are worried when they have to manage/ supervise people older then them. We have to remember that we never would have been given that position if someone didn't think we had the right skills. Age has nothing to do with your expertise. Have confidence and be respectful. Youth is a liability only when the youth think it is.

I had to break away from this when I was 22 years old. I was supervising people much older then me and it was hard for me especially because of the whole Korean tradition. Some Korean people really take the age gap seriously and expects a certain type of respect automatically from someone who's younger. This book really helped me to build more confidence and not let the age get in the way of striving for my dreams.

I hope this helps you guys as much as it helped me in my life.

Love,
Sandy