The majority of modern generations have been conditioned to expect that life suddenly starts going downhill as you get older.
Where somebody considers themselves old will vary, though, the WWS (WIN World Survey) suggests people will start to feel old around 40. But why is this? Shouldn’t we feel more enriched as we get older with all of our experiences and interactions with people?
Well, yes we think so, and we’re here to give you six reasons why life doesn’t have to get boring as you get older.
1. You’ll make better choices
Making better choices is usually a case of trial and error; the older you are, the more likely you are to make better choices because you’ve made mistakes in the past.
This kind of optimized decision-making means you can get to the meat of life quickly without having to worry about whether you’re going to enjoy what you’re getting involved with.
Even if you’re not great at making choices, because you’re older, you’ll more than likely have a few friends you can call on to help give you a guiding hand as you’ll usually know someone who’s great for particular situations.
Just think — if you could change your early years from making stupid decisions you probably would, right?
Right.
And this is exactly why being older is much more fun — you don’t need to worry about making those stupid decisions all over again.
2. You’ll know who your true friends are
Some friends (we use the term loosely) can be really crappy sometimes. They can really make us look back on life and make us wonder why the heck we wasted so much time on them. That’s not true for all friends of course, but the older you get, the more likely you are to cut through the BS where you’ll be able to know who has your back and who doesn’t.
As hard as it is to cut people out of your life sometimes, being older affords us this wisdom to see when we’re wasting time with people and when we’re not.
It’s not about being unforgiving, it’s just about self-care and not subjecting yourself to surrounding yourself with emotionally draining toxic personalities.
Being able to know who your true friends are means you’ll never have to worry about what they’re thinking or whether they have your best interests at heart; it means you can truly enjoy being in the moment and having fun with them.
3. You can afford to pursue your hobbies
There was nothing worse as a kid than having to beg your mom or pop for something you really wanted.
You’d throw yourself to the ground in a rage wondering why your smart decisions weren’t being followed through financially by the people who were supposed to love you unconditionally.
When you’re older and you’re set in your career, you’ll usually have the financial backing to pursue your goals, dreams, and hobbies.
This means you have full autonomy and control over what you invest your hard-earned cash in and usually have the means to do so without being over-extended.
Relatively simple freedoms like this can really increase our enjoyment as humans and can help us to live the lives we really want for ourselves.
4. You have the advantage of hindsight
Making poor choices in life provides us with lessons learned meaning we can make smarter decisions in the future.
How many times have you questioned previous life choices such as not investing in Facebook when it was about to take off or not working harder in school when you knew it would have led you to a better career?
Probably hundreds, if not thousands of times, though, don’t feel bad about this as these kinds of mistakes shape who we are and help us to make more efficient choices.
Having the advantage of hindsight helps us cut through the mess of life and allows us to get to exactly where we need to with relatively little fuss.
This makes life far more enjoyable as you’ll not have to stress about small things that you might not have known about when you were younger.
Older generally means being more confident and thus, being more sure of yourself and what kind of decisions will be advantageous for you and the people you care for.
5. You’re less afraid to talk to people
One of the things that many people struggle with for a very long time is talking to strangers or approaching people that they want to meet but are too afraid to follow through with.
Having social connections means you’ll have far more occasions to attend in your calendar and won’t have to worry about being bored or lonely.
Naturally, as we get older, we become more sure of ourselves and are less afraid to talk to others.
This means we make connections easier and are less afraid of feeling judged by others as we know such things are not always in our control.
This assuredness means you can get straight to chatting with people and setting events so you’ll never be stuck for fun.
6. You know who you are
Most of our points have already summarized this point quite nicely, however, to further emphasize, being older means knowing who you are more intricately.
You’re more in tune with what you like, who you like, and what types of things you’ll respond well to.
You’ll also know certain pitfalls to avoid and how to mitigate wasting time in fruitless situations or on toxic personalities that flit in and out of our lives.
Essentially, you’ll have a better-tuned internal compass that will help guide you through every single situation you encounter and this means you can make smarter decisions to help bring much more lasting enjoyment to your life.
Conclusion
Many of these points are of a philosophical nature and for good reason, humans are philosophical creatures that constantly evolve and change, shaped by the everchanging ebb of life around us. We are creatures of experience, or pattern-recognition machines if you will. We get better with more time — our brains gather data constantly and will try to learn from things that don’t benefit us so we can do better next time.
In conclusion then, and biologically speaking, humans are engineered to get better with time and thus, can learn to know what things bring them more enjoyment in the long-term rather than to keep making the same mistakes we made when we were younger.
There’s no disputing that physical ailments can creep in and upset our usual rhythms as we get older, however, our multiple decade’s worth of experience will again help us to overcome these situations with laser-like tactfulness.
Relevant Articles
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- 5 Reasons Why You Get Bored of People So Quickly (And What You Can Do About It)
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- 5 Ways to Ask Someone About Their Hobbies (a How-to Guide)
- Here’s How to Get Back Into Old Hobbies and Previous Interests (Easy 5 Step Guide)
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