ultra adulthood
“My mission is to find significance and to stop squandering the time I have been blessed with.” — from an email we received recently. Or as Seneca wrote, “The part of life we really live is small, for all the rest is not life, but merely time.” Old man Seneca goes on to say that there is plenty of time allotted us in life; of course more would be nice, but if we pay attention we can accomplish considerable amounts. My personal reminder is that Beyoncé has the same number of hours in a day that I have, and seems to achieve at super human levels. Aim high.
Not squandering time is difficult, but regret is worse. Velocity counts, and if we act with a sense of the past, some understanding of who we are, we won’t have to repeat our mistakes as often.
One of the defining characteristics we have found with AGEISTs, is that they have been alive long enough to know what works for them and, realizing that time is limited, turn themselves to getting done the things they feel are truly important. It’s perhaps the fifth stage of human development: child, teenager, young adult, adult, and now ultra-adulthood. This stage is filled with self-knowledge combined with worldly experience and powered by the urgency of time. Perhaps it’s why so many of us are starting new businesses, achieving at ever higher levels, moving to take on new challenges. As the man said: living, not just spending time.
