Aging and how time accumulates is a funny thing.
Every day you wake up, you may not notice the passage of time…
Until you do.
You might notice aches or pains or hit a milestone birthday and wonder, ‘Wow, how did that number get so big?’
I’m with you…
You may look in the mirror or head into your workout and wonder ‘What can I reasonably expect from this older body?‘…
I’ve never been 61 years old before, so how would I know?
What I do know is that comparing myself to my 31 year old self isn’t fair.
I guess the good news is that aging can provide some perspective.
Probably with my 60th birthday, I started to feel liberated from my younger more competitive self.
Competition can be a wonderful thing, until it isn’t.
With aging, my self talk around aging and my training has changed.
Are you a competitive person too?
It can be a gift AND a curse…Especially with aging.
Here’s my self talk as I continue to train in my 60’s:
- Check your ego at the door
- Moving ‘well’ is more important than ‘how much’ or ‘how fast’
- The competition is just you versus YOU
- The ‘winning’ is in the doing
- It’s okay to res
- Have FUN!
I hope you find a happy place for your competitive spirit.
By the way, it doesn’t matter if you’re a competitive athlete or consider yourself an athlete at all, I hope you see aging as a GIFT since not everyone is granted another year.
This self talk is helping me adjust to my age which seems to have just snuck up…
Maybe you’re surprised with how old you’ve gotten too?