This came across my \u201cdesk\u201d in the mail, and I mostly agree:<\/p>\n
Have you heard the acronym FOMO? It stands for \u201cFear of Missing Out,\u201d and a popular hashtag. Personally, I\u2019m not sure I ever experienced FOMO, even in my younger years, but I know now, with age, I feel entirely justified in my lack of FOMO (LOFOMO?). I have a pretty good grasp on what\u2019s worthy of leaving my comfortable couch for, and I have no problem declining invitations. For that, I\u2019m grateful.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m grateful that I made it to the most recent milestone birthday, that I\u2019m healthy and, if not entirely wise, at least more so than I once was<\/p>\n
In fact, I\u2019m grateful that I\u2019m more grateful as I age. And I\u2019m not alone. I did an informal poll of others who are, like me, still learning as their years tick up. I asked what they\u2019ve come to appreciate with time. Here\u2019s what I found: <\/p>\n
We\u2019re unapologetic about spending less time doing things we don\u2019t like doing. That book we picked up but just can\u2019t get into? We\u2019re abandoning it and picking up one we like better. No guilt.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re saying goodbye to drama. In our youth, we may have been drawn to the dramatic, but today, who has time for it?<\/p>\n
We\u2019re working hard enough to focus on our priorities\u2014which have become clearer with age\u2014and don\u2019t need more of the he-said-she-said distractions.<\/p>\n
We want friendships that drive us, not drain us.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re grateful that we can, if we choose to, eat ice cream for dinner. But we\u2019re wise enough to know not to do it (often).<\/p>\n
We\u2019re less bound by cultural and fashion constraints. Stiletto heels? No thank you. At this stage, we\u2019re perfectly happy to put favor comfort first\u2014and we feel great for doing it.<\/p>\n
We know when and how to cut corners. Time is limited, and we\u2019re learning how to make the most of it and delegate when we can.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve working to be our own advocates. This applies to the doctor\u2019s office, the workplace, at our grandchildren\u2019s school, on the streets outside. We know how important it is to stand up for ourselves at the right place and the right time, and we\u2019re not afraid of looking \u201cuncool\u201d while doing it.<\/p>\n
We empathize more. It takes time and experience and loss and introspection and patience to understand that we all have different experiences and we\u2019re all trying to do the best we can with what we have.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve learned to appreciate our bodies for what they can do. We\u2019ve carried and delivered children, climbed mountains, weathered heartache, recovered from sickness, and we\u2019re stronger because of it.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re learning every day to be more accepting and forgiving\u2014not just of others, but of ourselves.<\/p>\n
My addition: In fact, there are so many things I\u2019m grateful for when it comes to aging\u2014some people spell it \u201cage-ing.\u201d I\u2019m grateful that I\u2019m more confident, that I\u2019m in a good place when it comes to career, that I love my wife and our life together, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This came across my \u201cdesk\u201d in the mail, and I mostly agree: Have you heard the acronym FOMO? It stands for \u201cFear of Missing Out,\u201d and a popular hashtag. Personally, I\u2019m not sure I ever experienced FOMO, even in my younger years, but I know now, with age, I feel entirely justified in my lack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,16,26,17,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autobiographical","category-papers","category-psychology","category-scriptology","category-wisdom-ing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2972,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971\/revisions\/2972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}