If you didn’t know your age, how old would you be?
I’m reminded of a story that motivational speaker Wayne Dyer shared about when he was 55. He and his wife were out running when they came upon a fence. As Wayne began to jump over the fence, his wife shouted “You can’t do that!” But it was too late and he jumped anyway. Afterwards his wife said “You can’t go jumping over fences like that…You’re 55.” To which he replied, “Oh I forgot.”
Often times, we let society dictate to what we can and cannot do because of our age. We are told to act our age.
Act our age? What does that mean?
Who says that at age 55, you shouldn’t be able to jump over a fence? Maybe it’s the same person who says that at age 47 you can’t be fit and active. That you should just find yourself a comfy place on a couch and plant your ever-spreading backside there until the good Lord calls you home.
Nah. I don’t subscribe to that kind of thinking.
As we age, it’s no doubt that we’re going to have aches and pains. It’s no doubt that it is going to take us longer to recover from physical activities than it did in our 20s and 30s but we will recover.
We will get stronger, faster, better if we keep moving, if we stay active, if we refuse to succumb to society’s “Act your age” frame of mind when it comes to our body and aging.
Don’t let society define what 40 or 50 or 60 is. Define it for yourself. Get up and start moving. Start lifting weights.
And the next time society tells you to “act your age”, tell them that you are.