Continuing on from my previous blog about ageism, I wanted to talk about another age related issue...being too old (or in some cases too young) for something.
Age has no relevance to anything. Age is not important. Okay, there are age limits on things such as driving, drinking, smoking, and other legal things but that's not what I'm talking about.
"I'm too old to start anything new."
"I'm too old to have a dream or goal."
"I'm too old to...."
"I'm too young to make any solid decision"
"I'm too young to be taken seriously." - I'll be talking about life experience in my next blog.
"I'm too young to..."
Age is just a number. Literally that. The age of a person really should have little impact on their desire to do anything they want!
If you want to be a rock star, go for it. If you want to be a professional photographer, what's stopping you? If you want to be an office clerk, refuse collector, environmentalist, actor, priest, sportsperson, teacher, officer, lifeguard, writer, actor...and so on - what is stopping you? The answer to this question in the first instance could very well be - YOU. You are stopping you.
Why does your age even enter the equation? Just because you're in your 60's doesn't mean you shouldn't start working towards your dream or goal. Just because you're 12 doesn't mean that your dreams are any less valid! Alan Rickman was 42 when he got his big break, Samuel L Jackson was in his early 40's as well when he got his. Stan Lee, the comic book creator, didn't make it until he was in his late 30's. Henry Ford was 45. Charles Darwin was 50. Laura Ingalls Wilder never stopped chasing her dream of becoming a writer and at the age of 65 her first book, Little House, was published. This went onto become basis of the TV show, Little House On The Prairie. Harland Sanders was 62 years old when he franchised his unique way cooking chicken and now millions of people enjoy a KFC thanks to him not giving up on his dream. Anna Mary Robertson Moses (Grandma Moses), at the tender age of 78 decided to follow her dream and take up painting. Her paintings were featured on postage stamps in the 1940s. At the age of 96 Harry Bernstein decided to fulfil his dream by writing his memoir; it was such a success he went on to write two more books.
As you can see this list is very diverse but they all have one thing in common...they all decided to follow their dream and not one of them gave up. Nor did they let their age get in the way.
Once you have decided what you want to do go for it. The only thing that is stopping you achieve it is you. If you want to be an actor but you don't have any experience (replace the word actor with anything you want to become) then look into the ways of gaining experience. It doesn't have to be through educational routes (though of course there are some dreams where this is absolutely necessary) but experience is vital. After all, maybe you have a dream of becoming a successful actor, you try it but it actually doesn't work for you. That's absolutely fine - at least you tried it and found out something about yourself.
Don't dream small - DREAM BIG! The only limitations of the things you want to achieve are the ones you put on yourself. Of course there are somethings that are going to be extremely difficult to achieve but if you want something that desperately - surely it's worth putting the work in!
Before I finish, I'd like to mention a couple of the young people who have achieved great success. Of course the most famous one is probably Mark Zuckerberg. He launched Facebook when he was just 19 years old and it's now worth an estimated 61.7 BILLION dollars. Fraser Doherty was aged just 14 when he used a skill he'd learn from his grandma to start a company. He made jam and he sold his self-made jam to Waitrose stores as a teenager. He's currently got a net worth of about £1.5Million. There are plenty more there to choose from too!
Of course a lot of these people are extremely wealthy thanks to following their dream but success doesn't need to be measured in the amount you have in the bank. Success should be measured in whether you *feel* successful from achieving your goal and whether it makes you happy! It doesn't matter how big or small it is either, maybe you want to be able to colour in properly, or to bake a cake. Maybe you want to set the goal of decorating the living room or walking up a mountain? It can be great to have lots of little dreams or goals to follow rather than a big one...but don't let your age stop you having a big one! Take a look at my blog on New Years Resolutions for how to help manage your bigger goals. https://www.standsureinlife.com/post/resolve-to-evolve
Contact me for some one to one Life Coaching if you have a dream you want help achieving.
Find your dream. Follow your dream. Live your dream.