My Last Good Year

I\’m not sure how it crept up on me so quickly, but I turned forty-nine years old yesterday.

It seems like just yesterday I was graduating from college.

I\’ve watched my kids grow to become young adults before my eyes. I\’ve been in the internet business eighteen years. Time truly does fly.

As I look back on the day, I am incredibly grateful for the wonderful family, friends and associates in my life. Emails, skype chats, Facebook posts, LinkedIn messages, phone calls, unexpected gifts and even a recorded video of a friend singing Happy Birthday to me.

With my 50th birthday coming up next Cinqo de Mayo, it\’s been said that I am entering my \”last good year.\”

Is forty-nine destined to be my last good year? It may be.

But that\’s because I intend for every year after fifty to be GREAT!

As I look back at seasons of my life, it\’s possible to apply stereotypes about people based on age groups.

For example, in my teen years I should have been hired to work for NASA. After all, I knew everything!

In my twenties, I was still immortal and the world was my oyster. You could try to tell me things, but I probably didn\’t want to listen because I really felt that I knew what was up.

In my thirties, disillusionment set in. Perhaps I really didn\’t \”get it\” after all, and I wondered if I was going down some wrong paths.

And in my forties, I finally became free to admit to, and embrace, my cluelessness!

Oh, it\’s not that I don\’t know a little about some things. And it\’s not that I don\’t have anything of value to say.

But in the big scheme of things, I am ignorant. Ignorant essentially means \”not knowing.\” By the way, I\’m not the only ignorant person. You are too.

Don\’t get all offended and storm off in a huff. Let me explain.

Picture a piece of white paper, 8 1/2\” x 11\” in dimension. Let\’s say that piece of paper represented ALL knowledge in the world.

Now grab a pencil and make a shape that would indicate how much of that knowledge you can claim.

You couldn\’t make a dot small enough that wouldn\’t be overstating the percentage of all knowledge that you can claim for your own. It would be microscopic and insignificant.

So when we consider everything that can be known and compare it to what we actually know, we are incredibly ignorant beings.

Once we realize just how little we actually know, it opens us up to possibilities. Not just possibilities for what we may discover and learn next, but also for other people\’s opinions, beliefs, thoughts and feelings that may differ from our own.

In the past, I fought very hard to be heard and to persuade people to my way of thinking. I daresay that I would sometimes come off as arrogant or judgmental. I still have very strong opinions, but I\’ve found it very liberating to release others to believe, think and feel however they wish. I can\’t control them and it is foolish for me to even try do so. (I\’ll bet you know some people who do this, right?) So why should I let what others think rule what my head and heart are telling me to do and how I should live? What would give me the right to impose \”my way\” on other people?

It\’s very liberating to come to a place of acceptance. This means not only accepting who you are, but in doing so, accepting that others are who they are. We can\’t change one another!

I think all this means that the fifties are going to be incredibly exciting! Knowing that I don\’t know anything means I don\’t have to understand it all. I don\’t have to get it \”all right.\” I can be fully human, with more than enough flaws to go around. I can accept myself, which allows me to become more accepting of others. Phew, that takes the pressure off!

Yes, I can carpe all the little diems I have the opportunity to carpe. And I can just be, enjoying the process of discovery.

That is an exciting notion!

More than ever, I understand what people mean when they say that age is just a stage of mind. I still FEEL like a young man and I have the same enthusiasm for the future. I still like to be silly, watch stupid movies, play computer games and laugh at farts. (Admit it, you do too.)

So why get \”old\” when I can approach each new day as an opportunity to grow, love and live more fully?

In fact, why should I wait for fifty to have a great year?

I think I just finished my last good year.

Starting today, I\’m going to have a GREAT year.

How about you?