1. Are you determined not to age?
We live in a youth-oriented society, where the fastest growing group, the Baby Boomers, learned,
“Never trust anyone over thirty.”
They’ve probably extended that limit by now; I haven’t checked recently to see what it is. 60? 70?
We see ads everywhere for products and services to erase wrinkles, get rid of flab (painlessly and
quickly), and make your teeth whiter than nature intended (without giving up coffee or red wine).
So let’s look at a few facts:
Aging starts when you are born. Not at an age you have mentally selected as “over the hill,” but
from the start. Change is inevitable; the question is, “What change?”
And more importantly, what determines that change? If you shrug and say, “It’s just my genes. My
mother/father was the same,” you aren’t up to date on the latest findings. (Check up on Bruce
Lipton’s The Biology of Belief to read the latest research on this topic.)
Would you believe that beliefs are possibly the most important determinant of how you age?
Not when you age, but how. So watch what you believe.
Do you believe 50 is over the hill? 60? 70? Oh, well, not until
80? Whatever you believe, you will experience. You will look for
signs of aging and because you look, you will find them.
Let’s say you or someone near you has a memory short-circuit. If the
person is 18, we say, “how careless.” If the person is 80, we say,
“senior moment.”
Do you have some physical problems that get in the way of your full
enjoyment of life, and you say, “Well, I’m just getting old?” Perhaps
you don’t remember the tragedy (it seemed like a tragedy) of
adolescent acne, crooked teeth that needed straightening, or overly-
oily hair that wouldn’t behave (but your mother insisted you go to
school anyway).
Everyone has physical problems, mental problems, emotional
problems, at any and every age. How you explain those problems
determines whether you are a problem-solver, dedicated to finding a solution (or at least a way to
co-exist with the problem while continuing to pursue your dreams).
Your beliefs will, in turn, guide you to make wise choices in what you eat, what you do, how you
organize your day, who you select to share your time and your life. To live a healthy, vigorous life,
you must believe that you can make an important difference in what happens to you.
We all know our time on this planet is limited, but finding simplistic solutions to the challenges we
face and providing an explanation (“It’s just old age”) that releases us from the responsibility of

2. dealing effectively with those problems doesn’t make that time pleasant. Focusing on pain and loss,
not surprisingly, leads to more pain and loss.
Remember when you were told you were too young to do certain things? And how much you
resented it, longing for the day when you were old enough? Then, poof, you were old enough, and
then, another poof … the culture tells you … you’re too old.
Some people do more than just survive for their time on the planet; they thrive. They participate
eagerly in life, continue to grow, invent new dreams when old ones disappear or are realized, and
recognize that love and excitement are not limited to a group of people in a certain age bracket.
The French say, “If youth but knew; if old age but could.” Here’s the final secret some of us
already know, and here’s what you can learn: you CAN have both wisdom and the ability to fulfill
your dreams at the same time.
Use your wisdom to develop beliefs that lead to actions that make your path here a joyful one.
Lynette Crane, M.A.(Psychology) and Certified Life Coach,is a Minneapolis-based speaker, writer,
and coach. She has more than 30 years' experience in the field of stress management. She currently
works to provide stress and time pressure solutions to harried women, those women who seek
"Islands of Peace" in their overly-busy lives. Her talks to groups of what she calls "harried women"
are receiving rave reviews. Visit her website at http://www.creativelifechanges.com/ to see more in-
depth articles and to view her programs.