Being 50 by Paul Cook

I resolved recently, that after due consideration and comparison with many other factors; world events, climate change, youth unemployment and general global unrest, that I must contribute a bit more. I decided therefore that I would be 50.  This decision luckily coincided with my 50^th birthday and so I wouldn’t be in trouble with the data police at The National Statistics office.  ‘It’s just a number’ the kinder of my friends and colleagues declared, ‘so you are officially old now’ the less compassionate (most of them) utter.  So what is in it for me?  Being 50 that is, The comedian Ricky Gervais described it as a time when you can now be grumpy about absolutely everything and  everyone will understand because you are 50.  Is that all there is?  An equation that unravels as
50/ - = Change of self-perception ability and belief.  Well of course it absolutely does not.

Although, I do find it interesting that such an insignificant change (after all, one second you are 49 the next 50) can drive a whole belief shift and outside perception; is it because that is the way our culture works?  Is it because the stigma attached to this says that in your 40’s you are capable of world domination, in your 50’s carpet slippers.  In his thought provoking book The Inner Game of Tennis, Timothy Gallway describes how we have a self-1 and self-2 and how due to self 1’s ‘judgement’ of self-2 (You are too old, to slow, not good enough etc.) we alter our own belief system.  Gallway explains a circumstance that is unchanging; imagine a tennis player serving a ball to the opponent the ball is called out by the umpire, self-1 immediately judges ‘you have done that again, what is the matter with you, you are not good at this’.  Take exactly the same circumstances and the umpire calls the ball in, self-1 and self-2 are now in harmony ‘we are great , fantastic, invincible’.

49 or 50 one second to the next, carpet slippers or world domination it’s up to you.  Surely the real equation is experience + belief= behaviour.

• Mary Dixon became a pilot at the age of 50, fulfilling a lifelong dream.
• Terri Tapper became the oldest female certified kiteboard instructor in the USA (and possibly the world)
• Larry Silverman of Ballston Lake, NY, achieved his 3rd-degree black belt in karate.

Etc.

So one of my closest and most trusted friends reassured me ‘It is only a number….. but quite a big one’!

Tune in this time next year for ‘ Being 51’.