There’s a saying I like (source unknown) that goes:
“You start life with a bag full of luck and a bag empty of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.”
I’m not so sure that our luck really gets used up as we go through life but I’m 100% sure that time runs out for each and every one of us. Substitute “time” for “luck” and the saying certainly rings true.
“You start life with a bag full of time and a bag empty of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of time.”
There’s one time in our life when we’ve got the best of both worlds and both bags have plenty in them, and that’s the midlife period, between the ages of 40 and 55.
During midlife our bag of experience has got plenty in it, thanks to the many years of adulthood we’ve spent trying new things, learning about ourselves and learning the world we inhabit. We’ve still got plenty to discover but compared to when we were 20 years younger this bag has more than enough in it to enable us to deal with most things life serves up. From a career point of view our experience can be a real asset at this point in our lives. This is a time when earnings typically peak.
In the middle years of life our bag of time is also pretty full. With life expectancies increasing significantly there’s every chance we’ve easily got a good 40 or 50 years to live, perhaps even more. That gives us ample time to make further progress along the path we’re on, to change course a little or even to forge a completely new direction.
With a large bag of experience and a large bag of time the midlife period really can offer the best of both worlds. If you’re in this period of life be sure to make the most of it.
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