I Was, I Am, I Will Become
Well, I turned the big 60 this week. I’m fairly introverted by nature, so I’m more inclined to reflect than to celebrate. The first thing that comes to mind is how grateful I am for all the adventures I’ve had through sixty turns around the sun. Linda, Nick, Brandon, family, work, friends, love, loss, travel, and of course, rock n’ roll.
The second is that sixty is a time in one’s life when you can look back and see with relative clarity things that you’ve done and will never do again. Some things you don’t want to do again and others you can’t because entropy has begun to take the upper hand. At exactly the same time, sixty is a time when you can look forward to a canvas of opportunity to make a difference and experience life with vigor and purpose. There’s a certain sense of urgency to live life to the fullest since the end is assuredly closer than the beginning.
This is where personal purpose really matters. Do I live life from here to the end with aimless self-indulgence or do I paint the canvas of opportunity with experiences that align with my purpose? I’ll choose the latter and teach, coach, mentor, and (hopefully) inspire with the aim of leaving our pale blue dot a better place than when I found it.
To help guide my reflection, over the next few months, I’m going to do a little exercise I’m labeling “I was, I am, I will become.” Each Wednesday I’m going to block an hour to reflect on: (a) something I was in my past that I will never do again, (b) something I am today, and (c) how I can learn from the answers to (a) and (b) to positively influence the man I will become. That’s right, at sixty I’m not done learning and growing. I’ll share a few of the outputs in future Muses and you can determine if the exercise would be useful for you to engage in.
You see, some might look at the future as a blank sheet of paper, but in my opinion, that’s not an accurate reflection of what the future holds for us. At each step in our journey, we engage in experiences—both positive and not so positive—that shape who we are in our current state. It is the cumulation of those experiences that influences our trajectory into the future. Irrespective of your age, the near-term is determined with a relatively high degree of certainty, but as the timeline of our life extends beyond the near-term, opportunities for change and growth expand.
It is our education, upbringing, and cumulated experiences that strongly influence the shape of what we become, so to affect positive change in our lives, we don’t just wake up one day and say “I’m going to change.” Grandiose declarations or resolutions seldom stick. Instead, to achieve a vision for a better version of ourselves, we must build a plan, resource the plan, set it in motion, and begin making progress—one step at a time. Change and transformation take time, effort, persistence, and perseverance. I’ve created a Personal Planning Guidebook to help aid in creating the next best version of you.
So to wrap things up today, I’ll be checking in with myself about how I’m going to paint the canvas of opportunity that lies ahead by looking back at previous versions of Andy and taking stock of who I am today. I was, I am, I will become. Yes, 60 is just a number, but it’s an important inflection point. Is it the beginning of a slow slide into inactivity and the abyss, or the launchpad for positive change and growth?
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I’m thinking of “I Was, I Am, I Will Become” as the title for my third book… Just putting a stake in the ground…
