I'm 56, so not that old, but age is increasingly a concern. Confirming what others have said - I am very much in touch with the teenage me and everything between. The days are long and the decades are short, indeed.
Health - for me, health it isn't about living a long time, it is living with self sufficiency and minimizing pain. I am not afraid of death, but I am afraid of the years of infirmity which often precedes it. I'm afraid of living the end of my life without my wife, but even more afraid of leaving her to finish life alone.
Regrets - I wasted too many years missing opportunities for fear of disappointing my parents or (later) risking appearing foolish. I assume HN has a higher than normal mix of introverts, so maybe you can relate.
Urgency - turning 30, 40, even 50 didn't phase me; I felt young and time seemed endless. But in the past five years the switch has flipped. In 14 years I'll be 70. The mortality curve is tilting up dramatically; friends and family will have died (perhaps me too). Many of the things that I always wanted to do will not be possible, so I had better attend to them now. There are far too many such desires, so triaging what is most important takes up more of time.
Work/life - I'll do my job competently and I'll leave it to the younger folks to be the hero at work. I think back on the deadline death marches and jumping on grenades to get projects back on schedule ... and every one of those deadlines was a sham. The products I sacrificed so much for were in the discount bin a year later.
“ I think back on the deadline death marches and jumping on grenades to get projects back on schedule ... and every one of those deadlines was a sham”
- I’m only just beginning to recognise this. I checked myself out from hospital early this year to join a standup meeting, to make sure the project was on schedule. Thinking about that now makes me angry. It was pointless.
> every one of those deadlines was a sham. The products I sacrificed so much for were in the discount bin a year later. <
Same experience here. I can't blame the companies though.
I was essentially a workaholic for decades. I wanted to believe I had a noble mission to fulfill, aka "true believer" or "clueless" àla Gervais Principle. It took me a long time to realize this attitude was incredibly damaging and wasteful. It's tantamount to smoking or other major self-destructive behavior.
Health - for me, health it isn't about living a long time, it is living with self sufficiency and minimizing pain. I am not afraid of death, but I am afraid of the years of infirmity which often precedes it. I'm afraid of living the end of my life without my wife, but even more afraid of leaving her to finish life alone.
Regrets - I wasted too many years missing opportunities for fear of disappointing my parents or (later) risking appearing foolish. I assume HN has a higher than normal mix of introverts, so maybe you can relate.
Urgency - turning 30, 40, even 50 didn't phase me; I felt young and time seemed endless. But in the past five years the switch has flipped. In 14 years I'll be 70. The mortality curve is tilting up dramatically; friends and family will have died (perhaps me too). Many of the things that I always wanted to do will not be possible, so I had better attend to them now. There are far too many such desires, so triaging what is most important takes up more of time.
Work/life - I'll do my job competently and I'll leave it to the younger folks to be the hero at work. I think back on the deadline death marches and jumping on grenades to get projects back on schedule ... and every one of those deadlines was a sham. The products I sacrificed so much for were in the discount bin a year later.