”Youth is the most precious asset of man”, my neighbor said to me a couple of days ago.
It was evening, I was coming home from a tennis session, I probably seemed to have more energy and the lady took the opportunity to philosophize: when she was like me, thirty-something years old, she was active, did a lot and had the impression that she would stay always young.
Then she asked me if my mother sometimes complains that she gets tired more easily, that she can’t do as much as she did or would like to.
Beyond the unintentional compliment she gave me, the warmth in her words, the advisory attitude -similar to the grandmas’ in my neighborhood had when I was little-, I also noticed regrets. Maybe she regrets that she doesn’t have the same vitality anymore, because she would like to do a lot but it’s hard for her now, she has knee pain, back pain, maybe she regrets things she didn’t do and now it’s too late… I didn’t ask her, unfortunately, we were both in the middle of the sidewalk and it seemed inappropriate.
But it seems to me that such conversations can be a preview of a potential future scenario.
Certainly, our body parts will hurt, legs, wrists, back or others; we will certainly want to do more than we can, we will certainly have enough spare time to reflect on what we have done and what we have not done and to be sorry.
I propose the following challenge:
Let’s think about us in 20/30/40 years from now, that we look back and analyze what we did and what we would have wanted to do but we never did.
What would you like to be on that list? What are those things that you risk to regret and that you still have time to move to the ”done”, ”enjoyed”, ”achieved” category?
I know, these are just some questions, maybe we all asked ourselves. The acid test here is not about what we know, but about what we do with what we know. Why does it matter? Because in 20/30/40 years from now, when we stop to talk about ourselves, we will have a wealth of joy and so few regrets!