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I Have More Limits Due to Age, but They’ve Made Life Amazing
I didn’t know that fewer choices would be a good thing
Everyone slows down as they age, even when they work hard to keep moving. It’s a natural process.
I find myself taking a nap around lunchtime more often. I cut short activities I could have done for hours thirty years ago. For example, I sometimes believe my power tools are feeling neglected. Out of the corner of my eye, I see them crying when I walk into the garage. They miss the hours of joy we used to have together. Now, it’s more like a short fling.
However, I’ve noticed something remarkable due to the restraints my body puts on me, and it’s this: I finish things more often.
At first, I was confused. How can I possibly get more accomplished than when I had boundless energy? The answer is that not having enough time makes you more intentional about what you’re doing. It makes you focus, and this is a major key to productivity. When I had tons of energy, I often threw it in a thousand different directions.
Limits can be a good thing in many other ways, even for creative arts, which may surprise you. Take the haiku, for example. The three phrases in a 5, 7, 5 pattern force you to make the strongest word choices.
Film photography has made a comeback, not just for the look of film, but because it makes you really think about what to shoot. Remember when we complained that we only had 24 or 36 pictures on a roll? Now, that’s considered a positive because you have to make every shot count. This is a big contrast to holding up your phone and endlessly pushing the shutter button, praying that one of your shots will be a good one.
Limits can even help with little things. For example, my wife and I used to have long debates about which bottle of wine to open on Saturday afternoons. We’re wine people, meaning we have too many bottles stashed around the house, so it was easy to keep pulling them out and agonizing over which ones we were in the mood for. I changed this by pulling out bottles only until I had two possibilities. Then I stopped looking. I take the two bottles to my wife, who then chooses the one she wants.
