Another year around the sun – ‘what you think, you are’

“You’re not what you think you are, but what you think, you are” -William James

So today marks that all important date – not that important to me but a worthy tool, my birthday. I’ve never been big on birthdays – (I mean never since I’ve been an adult). We didn’t make a big fuss when I was a kid over birthdays either, but certainly, as a kid birthdays seemed pretty important.

As I’ve gotten older and wiser, birthdays have become a good time to reflect and consider activities of renewal. I’m only a few years away from the big 60 and so the inclination might be to start thinking in terms of concerns over “aging” but this isn’t the outlook I want to embrace for myself or for others for that matter.

Age is nothing more than a number. How can a number define me or anyone else? To accept or act like there is a disadvantage to getting older is to embrace the idea of limits and limitations for yourself and others.

Instead of thinking of how old myself or another person is, it is really about the significance of becoming more aware, more wise and knowing. Advancing in a manner measured by years and numbers doesn’t have to define a cycle of anything short of improvement. Instead of thinking, advancing years, just think ‘advancing’ and, defining ‘advancing’ in terms of forward movement and motion, is a good thing worthy of gratitude for each moment in life.

I think back at my younger years when I didn’t seem to know how to be grateful for the moments. The moments, hours, days and years just seemed a culmination of bad things. I would dwell on the things that went wrong instead of finding the little things to be grateful for. That perspective was a tunnel of self-pity and blight and did not uplift.

I’m not sure how old I was was when I finally realised that in spite of injuries that, seemed debilitating and limiting, and in spite of the hard knocks thrown my way, there was a way to have an outlook of hope and gratitude. Learning to be grateful in moments when there seems nothing to be grateful makes tomorrow possible. Not only does gratitude make tomorrow possible it makes today much better. I’ve also found that when my attitude is positive and forward-thinking it helps someone else to have a more positive outlook so it is a small drop in making the world a better place. It also relates to my post earlier, ‘living in the now’

“You’re not what you think you are, but what you think, you are” -William James