I enjoyed seeing this list of 46 reflections on a life half-over from someone on their 46th birthday. You get extra credit if you can summon-up a piece of wisdom from each year you’ve lived. But, let’s keep it simple for now. Give me three.
Our painful life lessons are the raw material for our future wisdom so one way to determine your wisdom fingerprints is to consider some life experiences that you’ve metabolized into wisdom. What did you learn from your first job or first marriage or having your first child?
If I was asked this question, my answer would depend upon the day I was asked. Today, I might offer the following:
- Anticipated regret is a form of wisdom. The regret of the thing you didn’t do is twice as painful as the regret of the thing you wish you hadn’t done. I still regret not taking a whole summer to travel Europe after spending my spring quarter of my junior year overseas in England. My favorite MEA question is “Ten years from now, what will you regret if you don’t learn it or do it now?” This is how I catalyzed myself to learn Spanish and to surf at 56 even though I thought I was too old.
- The cosmic bellhop delivers your reputation before you arrive. While you can’t control what others will say about you, you can influence their perspective of you based upon your actions. As hotel real estate developer, I’ve encountered riled-up activists at community meetings who were worried about our plans to build or renovate a hotel, but I’ve never experienced being voted down for our proposal primarily because there were always good people out there speaking positively about us based upon our commitment to “karmic capitalism,” what goes around comes around.
- As we age, time is more important than money. What’s scarce is valuable and as we age, we have less time. This is particularly important with how we invest our time into relationships with our family and friends. If you’re rich, you have money. If you’re affluent, you have time.
-Chip
P.S. “Would you trade your wisdom for a tight ass?” I love this line in Demi Moore’s New York Times interview on this podcast. Her new film, “The Substance,” looks terrifying and fascinating and may be part of our MEA Film Fest in Santa Fe this December.