A little while ago I turned 40.
Somebody asked me, “Don’t you wish you were 20? Aren’t you freaking out?”
What a funny question for me.
I think that most people wish they were younger. Look at the popularity of Botox treatments and plastic surgery. Everybody strives to make themselves recapture some magic of youth.
What is this “magic of youth”?
The way you look? The way you feel? I must listen to teeny bopper bands and wear fashions from stores that make me look like a surfer dude, with baggy pants and ghetto sneakers?
I look at myself now and when I was 20. I am in much better health now, and have done things physically that I had no chance of doing when I was 20, like triathlons, ironmans and marathons. I have some advantage in genetics, so I could pass for 10 years younger if I wanted to. I have much more experience, emotional intelligence, better understanding and usage of my creativity. I communicate better and I have more skills. I have accomplished so much in my career that most people my age haven’t even gotten close.
Essentially, I am better now at 40 than I was at 20.
Do I wish I was 20?
Nope. Not me.