What Age Would You Choose?

The syndicated radio host Bobby Bones recently asked his listeners, “If you could be any age for the rest of your life, what age would you choose?”

Hmmm.

Teenager? No, especially those awkward middle school years.

My first reaction was that I would want to be in my 20’s again. Wouldn’t you? The aches and pains of later years are far off. You have energy, dreams, excitement, and freedom because you’re no longer a teen.

Yeah that was my first answer. First of all, nothing hurt yet. For those that don’t know, I’ve suffered from chronic pain for about thirty years. **Shameless plug alert!** (I wrote about it in my book “I’m Not Done Yet,” available at Amazon.com!)

However, the more I thought about it the more I realized I hadn’t learned a lot in my 20’s. I was healthy, Priscilla and I had just gotten married and we were starting our life together. We traveled all over and I was just getting started with my radio career. Priscilla was a travel agent (remember them?) and hadn’t even thought about a career in para medicine yet. Probably most importantly, I wasn’t completely comfortable in my own skin. I still put way too much importance into what others thought of me. I always tried to impress.

Maybe my 30’s would be a better age to choose. However, that’s when my back started to hurt. That’s when our children came along. I was 28 when we had our first; 32 when the second came along; then 35 and 37. Wow! I think my 30s were a blur! It was an amazing time and I was always learning new things as a father but I also put a ton of unnecessary pressure on myself trying to be the perfect dad.

Okay! Maybe I should choose my 40’s for the rest of my life. Well……maybe not. That’s when I started to have most of my health issues and there seemed to be more and more stress at work. Budgets were tight and I had to lay people off. I hated laying people off.

Now in my 50’s (almost 60) I am more comfortable with myself and my place on this planet. I’ve certainly learned a lot since my stroke and my career change, a.k.a. “firing.”

I’ve learned two things out of this exercise. First, I can really relate to that phrase, “If I knew then what I know now.” How cool would it be to have the wisdom of years when you had the health and energy of your 20’s? The second thing is that I learned quite a bit at every benchmark along the way and I’m okay with where I am right now.

What about you? If you could be any age for the rest of your life, what age would you choose? I know, you can’t, but it is fun to think about it.

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