Last weekend, I watched my oldest son graduate from college. It was an incredible achievement that as a parent, it was one of my greatest joys to behold. Instead of thinking about what advice I could give him, I drew a blank. I am in awe of him. He is a bold and exuberant youth in the prime of his life who has secured an incredible degree and a job at a coveted firm post-graduation.
While writing his card and searching for pearls of wisdom to bestow upon him, my eyes linger over a bottle of collagen supplement sitting on the counter. My neighbor told me that it’s supposed to do wonders for hair, nails, joints, and a host of other stuff.
It made me wonder… maybe my role isn’t to find the right advice to give to him, but rather to look to him to help me answer the question, how do I stay young? What’s the prescription for lifelong collagen of the mind? Wasn’t that what I was after (even now)?
To remember being young, I decided to examine the qualities that I see in my sons and in many other young people. Here’s what I came up with:
- The young are physically fit & drinks lots of water. They are active and in motion but get rest when they need to.
- They are in sync with a sense of adventure. They examine something and never arrive at the conclusion that it’s not possible but give every future possibility a real consideration. In other words, they are not jaded at all!
- They move through life more on instinct vs. planning.
- If they truly desire something, they go for it. They never construct self-made barriers.
- They don’t do things that they don’t want to do and/or avoid them at all costs (to the extent it is possible).
- They take things less seriously.
- They are too young to have cultivated a deep-rooted set of beliefs, and thus, can open their minds to all ideas from anyone/everyone.
- They see opportunity everywhere and not encumbered by existing boundaries.
- They most enjoy a sense of freedom to do what they please.
- They are fearless (super jealous of this trait). We, as adults, would have to forget our history as quickly as it happened to continually get back to this state of mind.
- They exude a sense of openness. When we are young, we accept control from various sources (parents, professors, etc.) As we get older, we want more and more control, and thus become controlling. Lack of control is directly proportional to our level of openness.
The expression “Youth is wasted on the young,” feels more apparent every year. We recognize that in our younger days of being in the prime of our lives, we did not realize how good we had it then, and our children likely don’t realize now. Maybe youth isn’t wasted so much as it is forgotten as time goes on.
Studying our children can remind us of who we once were before life’s experiences changed our outlook and we can manage our own reboot. The collagen supplements don’t hurt either!