Do you ever feel like you are a work in progress?
Or is it just me?
I don’t think we ever really stop changing. I certainly don’t feel like I’m the same person I was at 20, 30, 40, or even 50. Some things have changed for the better. Some things… well, let’s just say they’re still under review.
The things I believed in as a child have changed. My likes and dislikes have changed. Even the foods I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole when I was younger are things I now enjoy. And some of the things I loved as a child? Not so much anymore.
So, am I evolving?
I think I am.
One of the biggest changes I’ve noticed is my attitude toward learning. When I was in elementary or secondary school, learning wasn’t exactly at the top of my list of exciting things to do. Let’s just say I wasn’t sitting around thinking, “I wonder what fascinating thing I can learn today?”
Fast-forward several decades and I’m a completely different person.
I can’t seem to learn enough.
Give me something interesting to read, a new topic to investigate, or something I don’t know how to do, and I’m interested. Apparently, I just needed a few decades to discover that learning can actually be fun when nobody is going to give you a test afterward.
That’s definitely one change I consider a good one.
My tolerance level has changed too. Some things I’m more tolerant of, while others have gone in completely the opposite direction.
I think part of getting older is realizing you don’t have to spend your entire life trying to please everyone.
Sometimes, it’s exhausting.
And sometimes you eventually realize that constantly trying to keep everyone else happy isn’t necessarily doing anyone any favours, including yourself.
Of course, when you’re employed, you don’t always have a choice. There are people you need to work with, things you need to do, and occasionally you have to smile politely while thinking, “Seriously?”
That’s called having a job.
But outside of that?
I’ve become much more selective about what I will and won’t tolerate.
Some of my values have changed too, and I think they’ve become stronger with age. Experience has a funny way of teaching you what is important and what really isn’t.
I’m still an introvert. If anything, I think I’ve become even more of one as I’ve gotten older.
I like my peace and quiet. I enjoy my own company. And I’ve developed a rather impressive intolerance for certain things.
Bad behaviour.
Bad grammar.
Bad parenting.
Bad driving.
I could probably keep going, but we might be here all day.
And then there are the things I thought were terribly important when I was younger that simply don’t matter to me anymore.
I suppose that’s another part of growing older.
We learn to pick our battles. We learn that not every opinion needs to be defended, not every problem needs to become our problem, and not everything deserves our energy.
Maybe that’s what evolving really is.
Not becoming a completely different person but becoming a little more comfortable with who you are.
Learning from your experiences.
Changing your mind when you realize you were wrong.
Letting go of things that no longer serve you.
And continuing to learn, even when you thought you were finished with school decades ago.
So, yes, I think I’m still a work in progress.
And I suspect I always will be.
After all, if we ever stop learning, changing, and growing, what fun would that be?
And as Tigger would say, TTFN. Ta-ta for now!