Growing older and wiser

When I was a kid, I always thought golf was a sport for old boring men. I can always remember my Dad watching golf on TV and napping on the couch to my frustration when I wanted to go and do something. Perhaps I’m at the age when the bug hits as I’ve been doing nothing but thinking about golf and trying to perfect my swing all weekend.

I hung out with my best friend from high school last evening and we talked a lot of golf and life. Fittingly to the topic of this blog, he called me old a couple of times throughout the night (I’m 30 and he’s still 29 until next year). We talked a lot about aging, growing older and other things people do in their 30s.

I am about half-way into my time on earth as a 30 year old and I can say definitively that my life is much simpler than it was 2-3 years ago.

I don’t have that gigantic group of friends to go out with every Thursday-Saturday like I had in college or in my mid-late 20s. There’s much less drama and excitement, but much more stability and comfort. It’s nice to be at a stable place in life where my weekend activities consist of more than just partying.

I’m sleeping more, eating healthier and have new hobbies like golf. I spend more times outdoors and enjoy more time doing nothing. For some, this might sound scary and boring. I used to be in that crowd that never really wanted to grow old, but I can gladly say that is no longer the case. Growing older is amazing and I’m loving my 30s so far.

The beauty about growing older in adulthood is the wisdom that you gain as time goes on. You start to realize that wisdom and knowledge is exponential, not linear. What you learned before compounds as time goes on.

Every single life experience that you have had up to this point whether good, bad or neutral ultimately creates and molds the future you to be better. On the surface level, you’ve had that experience before and know how to deal with it better a second time around. Deeper down, your mind unconsciously takes this experience and expands it to other areas of your worldview.

That awful relationship you may have been in earlier in your life? That experience may teach you about toxic work cultures. Or perhaps drives you to cut-off a bad business relationship before spending more time on a project. It may even teach you to take that new job that may scare the hell out of you.

I don’t know what the rest of my 30s will entail, but I do know that I have wisdom to look forward to.