Birthdays, Who Needs them?

So another birthday just passed, a big one. Birthdays have never been a big deal for me, but this one wasn’t welcome. I told my wife not to make a big deal of it, that I definitely did not want a party. So why is this one affecting me so much?

Maybe it’s because birthdays always make you evaluate what is important in life. They are a time to look at where you are socially and economically and where you are in your personal relationships. Now that I am getting older … wait, that is it, I am getting old! Can this be true? Someone added a decade to my age. I cannot be this old!

I started noticing things like slower morning runs and aches and pains that hang on way too long. I started thinking, is my wit not so quick, am I repeating stories without even knowing it? Why did I come into this room? Maybe I am getting old!

Big Surprise … Really

My wife totally surprised me with a huge birthday party a week before my actual birthday. I did not see it coming and was surprised. Did she not listen to me about not having a party?

The timing, however, was perfect, because all my thoughts of being old morphed to how great it was to be celebrating life with family and friends. Their support sent me in a new direction. Seeing all the work, the effort, the days of planning – including an embarrassing, uproarious presentation that featured a roast, custom-written poems and a song performed by “Paulletts” written especially about me – blew me away. All of the festivities and the presentation, just to poke fun at me (I certainly have given them plenty of material over the years!).

Seeing all of this was a slap in the face, but in a good way. Over the next several days, I gained a new attitude and became happy with my age. After all, with age comes the experience to make better decisions in business and life (well, most of the time). Does anyone really want to be in high school again, with the peer pressure and the drama? I now enjoy spending time with people instead of trying to impress them, as I did when I was younger. I do not need more things to enjoy life – I just enjoy life. So I’m not going to be bothered by every time I pass by a mirror and I see my dad. As I resolve to enjoy life now, age becomes irrelevant.

So my new attitude is: 60 is the new 60, and I am going to enjoy it, until I actually do get old!