Halfway to 70

Me, 34 1/2 years ago

It was bound to happen eventually. Being the oldest cousin, oldest sibling and one the of the oldest in my class all through school, eventually I knew I would reach a point in my life when I would actually feel old. Now I am certainly not saying that 35 is in any way old. (I have seen first hand proof that old is a state of mind more than a state of being) I said that I would get to a point in my life when I would FEEL old. And boy do I ever feel old. In the words of Indiana Jones, "It's not the years Honey, it's the mileage."

It's been an eventful 35 years. I can only imagine that if the next 35 years are as eventful, by the time I reach 70 I will indeed BE old, not that 70 is old, it just happens to be twice my current age. It started off slow enough, elementary school and the brief moment of freedom that is childhood, but then comes middle school and then sports and high school and then dating and then college and then everything that college brings and then it begins to snowball into marriage and family and career and poof...you're 35.

A decade of marriage, 3 kids, a few houses and about twice as many cars and a couple of pets later and here I am at a halfway-point of sorts. Part-way to old, again, not that 70 is OLD. I hear 70 is the new 50...and I look farward to every day along the way to get there.

Anyway, my career is going well, family is growing and wonderful, life is full. Very full. Post Thanksgiving unbutton your pants full. So full in fact is life that my birthday blog is being written on the 8th. Thus is life when you are living in a house where the adults are outnumbered by the kids and the calendar is too full to find the time in it to schedule a meal with your wife or even to sleep more than a few hours. I truly feel lucky at the moment to simply remember what my name is and where I parked the car.

After 35 years I would expect to be able to pass along at least a few nuggets of wisdom...sorry, but this is all I have to pass along at this point:

Life is Good. Thank you Bert & John Jacobs for Jake and Rocket and their simple but profound truths.

Less really is more. After spending my entire birthday cleaning and organizing my garage (my choice) I have come to realize that "STUFF" clutters your life and that quality really does trump quantity. Anything that hasn't been used in 12 months is most likely NOT a necessary item. And also...one man does not need 27 screwdrivers.

You can't choose your family, so be very careful when choosing your friends. The people you spend time with have a huge impact on your life and on your perception of "how it is"...so when you can choose, choose wisely! I try to fill my life with people who challenge me to be better and who see the glass as half full!

Take a chance, make a decision. I tell my team this all the time, and it's almost always true. You are better to make a decision, even if it ends up being the wrong one, than to do nothing or put off a decision until later because you're scared of being wrong. I've taken a lot of risks in my life and my decisions haven't always turned out to be the best ones, but I have always regretted a decision NOT made more than one that in retrospect might not have been right.

There is very little upside to worry. I have seen worry destroy lives. It is unproductive, unattractive, unhealthy and self- destructive. When you feel overwhelmed with worry you can't see the solution, you can't see the light. What will happen will happen, we can't control everything, we CAN control our reactions, and worry is about as useless a reaction as you can find.

Look forward to tomorrow! Although none of us are guaranteed another breath, odds are if you go to sleep tonight you WILL wake up in the morning. If that IS the case than DO SOMETHING GREAT with tomorrow when it comes! I try to end each day, as exhausting as it may have been, with excitement for the next day. Right now my youngest son is 6 months old and his bright-eyed smile is the best wake up call in the world. He is happy not because of anything specific that today brings, but just because today is here. After 35 years I just wish I had the simple optimism of an infant!