I Don't Want My World to Get Smaller. Experiences go on the calendar first.
I went roller skating this weekend for the first time in a long time.
And I was nervous.
Which is strange, because I used to do things like ride a Harley without giving it much thought. But I also broke my arm roller skating in my living room years ago, and apparently middle-aged me remembers that much more clearly than younger me would have.
It made me wonder: When did I become so worried about getting hurt?
I've reinvented myself so many times I actually wrote the journal, The Four Stages Of Reinvention. I used to pursue this idea of breaking the myth that everything starts falling apart as we age.
And yet, if I'm not careful, I can feel my own world getting a little smaller.
Not because I can't do things.
Because I stop choosing them.
There's always something more responsible to do. The garden. The house. Work. Another business idea. Something to fix, plant, build or accomplish.
I can fill an entire week with productive things and never once ask myself:
What am I going to experience this week?
That question is starting to change things for me.
I'm 56. I don't have an unlimited number of Saturdays left. None of us do. And I don't mean that in a depressing way.
I mean it as a wake-up call.
Maybe we need to stop measuring a good week only by what we got done.
Maybe we should measure some of them by where we went, what we tried, who we met, how hard we laughed and whether we did something that made us feel a little more alive.
I'm still going to work in my garden. I'm still going to dream up too many business ideas and have more house projects than I can finish.
But I'm going to start putting experiences on my calendar first.
And maybe that's my challenge to other women in this season of life:
Before you fill another week with everything you need to accomplish, put one thing on your calendar simply because you want to experience it.
Take the class.
Go to the concert.
Get on the horse.
Book the trip.
Put on the roller skates.
Your life doesn't have to get smaller just because you're getting older.
What are you still saying “someday” to?
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