Push toward your goals or not, but you age at the same rate
You have a choice today to push forward toward your goals, or to just continue on with the status quo. Whether you push forward today or not, either way you’ll be a day older.
Julia Cameron used an excellent question to explain this in her book “The Artist’s Way”. Suppose you’re considering learning to play the piano, but you’re worried it might take a while:
“But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really play the piano / act / paint / write a decent play?”
“Yes . . . the same age you will be if you don’t.”
10 years from now, God-willing, you’ll be ten years older than you are right now. The +10 version of you might be able finally learn to play the piano or speak Spanish, or perhaps they won’t. Either way you’ll be 10 years older, and wouldn’t it be great to have picked up that skill that you’ve always wanted to have?
30 years ago I focused spare time on learning to play the piano, motivated by the success of of my daughter (age 8 at the time). Recognizing the challenge, I set a goal 5 years, at which time I would hopefully be proficient enough to really “make music”. Instead, after 5 years, I found I could only “regurgitate” a semi-respectable performance. So I quit.