Signs of Aging

30 somethings…you will probably, maybe and definitely realise in your 30s.

1. You will take a proper look at yourself in the mirror and realise you are not that good-looking after all
2. You will take another proper look at yourself and realise you are beautiful just the way you are
3. You will walk away from the mirror with a keen sense of awareness that beauty and looks do not really matter all that much after all
4. You will realise you ARE ‘the smartest person in the room’ in some rooms, but will not feel like you are in the wrong room
5. You will feel equally comfortable in rooms where you are NOT the smartest person in the room
6. You will seek rooms where you are seen, heard and valued irrespective of whether you are or not ‘the smartest person in the room’
7. You will realise looking good or being smart does not actually guarantee lasting Success or Happiness in life
8. You will realise that lasting Success lies in consistent investments; and will start investing — not just in stocks, but in relationships, in your health, in good habits.
9. You will realise that lasting Happiness is not in material things, but it is hidden like nuggets in places you least expect it in
10. Like in little things — Lunch with co-workers, walking the dog, texting a friend, watching a comedy, cooking your favourite meal, calling your mom, finding fresh produce at the grocers
11. Like in big things — the feeling of fulfilment that comes from finding your person, nurturing lives completely dependent on you — whether it be plants, pets or kids — (in increasing order of difficulty and subsequent fulfilment)
12. You will not be hasty to judge people on their vices or addictions. You realise they are coping mechanisms
13. You will not be hasty to judge people on their mental health struggles. You realise that you don’t have a full view of their life experiences
14. You will be hasty to judge people who claim with no inkling of a doubt whatsoever, that they have neither of the above
15. You will lose the tendency to box people into Good and Bad people. Because you realise you also fit into both boxes.
16. You will realise there is no such thing as a Bad person as much as there is a person with brokenness or wounds that needs healing.
17. You will think you are less successful than your peers
18. You will think you are more successful than your peers (Ironically, both will happen)
19. You will realise being open-minded is really about the ability to see multiple perspectives. And you really needn’t have travelled to different countries and read a bunch of books to have an open mind
20. You will forgive or forget those who wronged you by meeting better people or by becoming better people
21. You will learn to gulp down pride and mend broken ties — especially parental and long-time friendships as you realise life is too short to hold on to resentments and also because life has a sneaky way of putting you in the shoes of those who offended you
22. You will realise Love is really about paying attention to another person, more than anything else
23. You will realise Love is really about collecting and remembering small details about another person
24. You will crave for Solitude when faced with domestic demands of marriage and family life. In the words of my favourite writer, distance between loneliness and solitude is measured in getting used to your own company and beginning to like it
25. You will crave for Companionship when you return to an empty house. The defining moment a house becomes a home is measured in how much eagerly you look forward to come back to it.
26. You will crave either of the above only in its absence. So, you will realise you have to make the most of what you have, when you have it
27. You realise you will mess up one area of your life — finance, or career, or relationships because that is how Life and Time works
28. You will realise that the worst when it comes to that is not the worst after all, you will find a way to endure or learn to live with it or even turn it around for good, because that is how Life and Time works
29. You will realise there is comfort in the words of old people who talk rather slowly, than in those of highly intelligent people who talk at 1.25x, because they have witnessed how Life and Time works
30. You will genuinely think you have enough life experience to become a Life expert and Coach and start dishing out unsolicited advice to people in their 20s, and especially when no one asked.

And one more for good measure…

31. You realise that the truest and lasting cure for depression and anxiety is putting your faith in something bigger than yourself..like God, for example :)