“Past Prime”

I have not met a single person, who - in their late 30’s or 40’s - did not suggest a decline of some form, or who did not consider that they could be approaching their ‘prime’, rather than having past it.

And I’ve heard this sentiment (of having ‘past one’s prime’) expressed with evidence in several areas…

• Some friends observe a fall in earning power (when competing with younger job applicants);
• Some friends observe a deterioration of the body (either the results of falling metabolic rates, joint pains, or a significant illness or condition);
• Some friends wonder if they should continue spending on that expensive skincare regime, or that it’s a lost cause;
• Some friends express a sense of irrelevance and an inability to stay relevant — presumably a felt inability to acquire knowledge and build competencies at the rate that ‘the younger people’ are doing today;
• Some friends reveal a general decline in optimism and ambition; some express a lack of hope in ever achieving something that they had set out to achieve (when they were technically younger), or some form of benchmark success that they’ve selected for themselves;
• Some friends have experienced the never-before split-second delay in forming words during speech.

And most of them feel that they are at the effect of the aging process, rather than fully in control.

For one, or all, of those reasons, I have friends who consider themselves desperately clutching at the final years of what they consider ‘the prime of their lives’, or who with some trepidation consider themselves ‘past prime’ and preparing for retirement of some sort.

“Don’t resist…” one might say. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with aging…” True. “There can be a beauty in graceful aging…” Also true.

“It’s time to slow down a little, accept things for what they are, and yield to the younger people…” Absolute rubbish.

This post is the second, in a series of articles that I will publish under Ageless (working title).

I’m going to follow up with a series of posts — focused on practical ways to challenge conventional thinking about age and aging.

Once I’ve written enough on this topic, I may bundle them somewhere.

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