“Happy Birthday to me!” – It’s important to celebrate every one of them!

“Happy Birthday to me!” I feel like shouting this from the rooftop!………. Remember when you were younger and you got excited about your birthday? For some of us, that changed. Have you stopped feeling like that? Has your birthday become something you are not sure about celebrating, if so, why?

Why you may not be celebrating your birthday.

I think it’s the significance many of us put behind the meaning of it. To some people, every birthday means we are getting older and trigger thoughts of mortality. It’s brought on by fear. Fear of uncertainty, fear of what’s coming next, fear of being old, fear of illness, fear of mortality. So, rather than acknowledging our birthdays, we downplay them. That’s how I felt a decade ago.

Getting Older

The reality is, we are getting older day by day, that’s a fact! However, feeling old is not inevitable. We have a choice. You only have to look around you and notice there are individuals of the same age who exude energy and liveliness, while others appear old, tired, and resigned to a life already lived. If feeling old was inevitable, why is there that difference? Many people fall into the trap of thinking that growing older means you become old.

I want to disrupt this old way of thinking. Many people do not realize we have a choice, and instead, they let this direct their lives. Ending up settling and slowing down when really we should be going faster. As our lives are getting shorter day by day, we should be grabbing opportunities and experiencing as much of life as we can while we are here.

We have a choice

“Happy Birthday to me!” This led me to start asking questions, and when I started asking questions, I started getting answers but that led me to more questions. Which led me to that one big question which is why all this came about –

“Why do some people of the same age differ so greatly in the way they think, feel and act?”

It comes down to choice. Although many of us think, “I can’t help the way I feel,” our feelings are triggered by our thoughts, and who controls our thoughts? It’s us. There might be many influences, but at the end of the day we are the ones who have the final say, we can choose how we think. It’s like this, if we think we are old, we start feeling old, and as a consequence, we start acting old.

Experts don’t agree on many things, however they all agree on this, which is –

“We become what we think about”
Earl Nightingale

I made a decision.

“Happy Birthday to me!” Today I am fifty-two, I feel amazing, the future looks bright, and most days, I get up feeling inspired. I say “most” because it’s not every day. However, I have learnt how to notice when I’m feeling a little off and catch it early before it spirals. I haven’t always felt like this.

I remember vividly when I decided I had to take drastic action. It was one morning when I went to get out of bed, and I couldn’t move. It took me a few seconds, which felt longer than a few seconds, to adjust my body. You see I have been getting stiffness in my legs and body, especially when I have been sat down for a period of time or just getting up first thing in the morning, and this was beginning to become the norm. That’s when it hit me!

I thought, if I felt like this at 36, how on earth would I cope in my forties or fifties, never-mind sixties? And that was the moment that I decided I had to change, not only for me, but for my kids. I want to be around for them as long as I can! I want to be there to see my grand kids grow up! To be able to play with them and have the energy to do things with them! I don’t want to be a burden to Jim, the kids or having to rely on anyone to carry out the normal day to day tasks, like shopping and cooking, etc. The thought of losing that independence dawned on me like a bolt, because for as long as I can remember, my grandma had to look after my granddad, nursed him, fed him and clothed him. That would be the worse if that happened to my dearest.

The Start

“Happy Birthday to me!”. So this was what prompted the beginning of a whole new journey for me. This is when my life began to shift. I got “curiouser and curiouser” about fitness and health, which developed into the anti ageing benefits.

When I started delving into one topic, there was another topic that would intrigue me. This led me to ask more questions about myself. “Why I did what I did and also why I didn’t do the things that I knew were good for me?”. I developed the hunger to learn more on this topic of our mind, and I found this was the foundation that helped me achieve what I have. I’m going to be sharing more of my insights, tips and tools that you can adopt to create a better future for yourself, in my brand new weekly email newsletter.

So if you haven’t already signed up yet, here’s the link “sign up for my weekly email newsletter“, where you will get a weekly dose of inspiration and also insider access to information and useful, handy lifehacks. Join here.

Important Message

I am sharing this with you, so that you can see that, what I started here, didn’t begin with plan. We don’t have to have a plan. Once again many of us are led to believe that we must have a plan before we start anything, not only that, we must have a plan B incase it doesn’t work out.

I want you to know that the most important thing is “to start”. Take imperfect action! Learn as you go! As long as you know why you are doing what you are doing, you will figure out the “how”.

Keep growing

When we start to learn new things, we keep growing, or the alternative is what? When we stop growing, something inside of us starts dying. Our light starts to dim. Just remember, that light is always there. it’s up to you whether you turn it up.

I realized just how little I knew. There is still so much I want to learn about. Learning at school was a chore, however this was different. I’m learning by choice and I am learning about things that interest me. The fact that information is now so accessible, it puzzles me that many of us stop learning at a certain age. Another old way of thinking. So what would you like to learn more about? 

What lights you up!

“Happy Birthday to me!”. The more I learned and took action, the more I felt myself come alive! I started getting that feeling of excitement bubbling up inside me. With some guidance from various mentors, I started to understand me more, and the more I understood me I began to understand more about human behaviour. I also became aware of the possibilities and opportunities opened to each one of us, that not many people are aware of.

My turn to give back

“Happy Birthday to me!”. Now it’s my turn to start giving back. You see we can all feel like this. It’s available to each and everyone of us no matter what. It’s not exclusive to just some of us. Yet many people think it’s down to luck. Well I have news for you, you create your own luck in life! Whatever choices you have made, has all been down to you.

Even if you think someone has dealt you a bad card, how you responded is chosen by you. So stop playing the blame game and let’s step up, because it’s not too late. Remember I said your light maybe dimmed, however you can always light it back up again!

I know how hard it is, the pain, the struggle and the frustrations of life. However, when you are down, you have got to think of the alternative, stay down or pick yourself back up, you choose. It’s easy to become disillusioned with life and sometimes it’s hard to see beyond where you are at, so let me be your guide….and together we can get through this.

I felt stuck for quite a while, however you know that feeling like as a kid, in a massive toy store, where you could find every toy you can think of, those are the opportunities I see before me. My retirement is not going to be what most people expect. My retirement is retiring from my job, not from life!

Final Note

“Happy Birthday to me!” On a final note, if you are still here, I hope this means something has resonated with you and you can take something away with you.

My one wish for my birthday is to make a difference to someones’ life one by one, and I hope it will be you shouting “Happy Birthday to me!” from the rooftop!

Keep Living Agelessly

Kath xoxo

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