Live Your Life Be Free!

Last night I went to my sister’s place for Sunday dinner and listened to my 5-year-old nephew read to me. With every word that tumbled out of his mouth, I was amazed. How was this little guy, who was a drooling baby lying on my chest while I was reading just a few years back… now is reading to me?

I thought about how much I have developed in the past 5 years. In the same time that he has learned to crawl, walk, read, write, do Sudoku puzzles, play video games, play hockey, negotiate with his older brother and sister, make everyone laugh with perfectly timed jokes… what have I done? Yes, I have some accomplishments academically, professionally and personally but they are nothing compared to my little nephew’s achievements – which are not unusual for a five-year old.

Someone told me that there is an inverse relationship between aging and developing. So, if from 0-1, you grow at a 1/1 rate, from  29-30 you grow at a 1/30 rate and at 98-99 you grow at a 1/99 rate (or at 1% of where you were at 0-1). Even though a Developmental Psychologist would likely contest the science behind this – the main idea that growing and developing are easier when you are younger makes sense to me. I think it is possible to cheat the system through concerted effort… but, this idea does inspire me to do act now on the things that are important to me, since later they will surely be more difficult.