[From 59, I stopped saying it's too late. #15] You didn't need special talent to change your life
Thank you for reading again today.
I am not a person with special talents.
I haven't become number one in any field, nor have I achieved great success.
I worked at a company like anyone else, handled the tasks in front of me, and before I knew it, I was 59 years old.
I used to compare myself to others often.
People who were promoted faster than me.
People with higher incomes.
People who turned their hobbies into their jobs.
People who had been preparing for retirement for a long time.
Every time I saw such people,
"What have I been doing all this time?"
I felt a little anxious.
The more I compared myself to others, the more I noticed only what I was lacking.
If only I had more ability.
If only I were younger.
If only I had started sooner.
I thought that only people with talent or special initiative could change their lives.
But recently, my way of thinking has changed a little.
Perhaps you don't need special talent to change your life.
What is necessary is
"How do I want to live from now on?"
to ask myself that question.
I quit drinking.
It wasn't because I had some grand resolution.
The life I want is not waiting for me if I continue to drink like this.
I just thought so.
Just because I started abstaining from alcohol doesn't mean I became a different person the next day.
There are days when I want to drink.
There are nights that feel long.
There are still parts of me that aren't used to not drinking.
Even so, I just won't drink for today.
I have repeated that small choice.
Then, the time I used to spend on alcohol came back to me.
I found time to write.
I remembered the joy of learning new things.
I started thinking about what kind of life I want to live after retirement.
I want to travel around the world.
I want to enjoy the guitar more.
I want to see scenery I haven't seen yet with a healthy body.
Things I would have ended by saying 'it's impossible anyway' before, I now think about 'how can I do this'.
It's not so much that my life has changed drastically, but rather that its direction has started to shift little by little.
That is the feeling.
The trigger for that was stopping comparing myself to others.
Am I more successful than someone else?
Do I have more than someone else?
Do I look impressive to those around me?
Instead of using that as a standard,
Have I lived with a little more satisfaction than yesterday?
Was I able to cherish what I want to cherish?
I decided to use that as my standard.
As long as you are running while looking at other people's lives, you won't know where you want to head.
But when you start walking by your own standards, strangely, you stop feeling impatient even if your speed is slow.
I am currently in the middle of rebuilding my life after retirement.
It's not that I have a completed plan yet.
I think there will be times when you fail or feel lost.
Even so, there is meaning in what I started at 59.
I have come to be able to think that way.
You don't need special talent to change your life.
You don't need big decisions or dramatic challenges either.
Stop one thing you want to stop.
Start one thing you want to start in a small way.
Choose your day based on your own standards, not someone else's.
I think that life starts to change from such small things, surprisingly.
I am still in the middle of rebuilding my life.
That is exactly why I am looking forward to what lies ahead a little bit.
Today's step
Is there anything you have been putting off while thinking, "I want to change it someday"?
You don't have to try to change your life all at once.
Don't drink alcohol today.
Read just one page of that book you were curious about.
Try walking for just 10 minutes.
Write down just one thing you want to do from now on.
No matter how small, a step you chose yourself has meaning.
What is one small step you can choose today based on your own standards?