AT WHAT AGE DO YOU STOP DREAMING?

In a previous post, I discussed my belief that fear of running out of time to accomplish all that you want to do is the most legitimate fear of aging. A corollary of that is that, wherever you are in the lifespan, it’s important to have plenty of things to look forward to doing.

Where do you get those things to look forward to? Assuming that the things that you aspire to do are more substantive than finishing watching a series that you’ve started on Netflix or ordering take-out more often, the things that motivate you to do more come from your aspirations fueled by your dreams and daydreams.

As I look back on my proudest accomplishments, I recognize that they didn’t just happen; they occurred because they were initiated by a dream. I wasn’t a bit player in the evolution of my marriage and family life or my career or my lifestyle. I dreamed what they would be like, and then worked at fulfilling my dreams.

As a result, I have very few regrets with the choices that I’ve made. Sure, there are things that I would change in some ways that could have made my life easier at times. However, because I’ve been able to come close to creating reality out of my dreams, I can express appreciation and gratitude on a daily basis. Because I was able to convert my marital dreams into reality (with tons of help from Libby), I am able to mostly think about our life together rather than her death.

Because I’ve dreamed of how I would spend the second half-century of my life, I’ve been able to position myself at this age to work with some of the brightest people on earth at BetterAge to improve the health and well-being of millions of older adults.

The lesson in all of this is that the ability to dream is one of the things that makes us human, and so is the ability to act on those dreams. There is no shelf life on the ability to dream, and there is no age when you have to stop dreaming. Putting those dreams to work increases the likelihood that you will run out of time before you can implement all that you want to do.

And that’s a good thing!

As an aside, I suspect that the dreaming and implementation process also helps prevent cognitive decline.