I want to quickly Thank YOU for reading.
I understand that your attention and time are incredibly valuable and it means the world that you shared a few minutes with me.
Nod if you’ve heard the phrase, “you’ve got your whole life ahead of you.”
These words are often spoken during an early life lesson around a loss, disappointment, or as encouragement to ‘bounce back’. Maybe you received or shared this piece of advice around a graduation.
It essentially means: regardless of whatever’s happened in the past or present, you still have time to change the course of your future. It means you have made mistakes, and you will make mistakes, but that none of that defines you. Everything you’ve experienced becomes knowledge to apply moving forward. It’s a mindset shift from reactive (what has happened),
to proactive (what can still happen).
“[This thing] happened to me, but I have my whole life ahead of me to pivot, adjust, and fine-tune.”
Or, “I have no idea of my ‘purpose in life’ or what I’m good at, what I can do to make money, or what brings me the most happiness, but I still my whole life ahead of me to figure it out.”
The problem is we tend to let this advice fade away in relevance as we get older. Like, we can only have our ‘whole lives ahead of us’ in our singles, teens and twenties?! Seems silly, right?
But, I’m writing this today, on my 42nd birthday and thinking about how strong this message resonates — even today.
And that leads me to my birthday message:
whatever your age, you STILL HAVE your whole life ahead of you.
Mozart wrote his first symphony at age 8.
Ralph Lauren started the ‘Polo’ brand when he was 28.
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel introduced the world to her iconic №5 perfume at age 37.
Henry Ford was 50 when he installed the first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile.
Ray Kroc, a 52-year-old milkshake machine salesman, was convinced that he had time to pivot, and that the best was ahead of him.
Ben Franklin invented what we now know as ‘bifocal eyeglasses’ at age 78. You may be reading this today because of his contributions later in life.
These age-referenced factoids are merely that, but they serve a purpose: These are their stories, but show what’s possible.
They’re relevant in that success, happiness, finding your purpose, contributing to the greater good, or simply doing rad things you’ve always wanted to do, can come at any age.
Your story, however, is still being written.
The good news: you’re the author, and you have your whole life ahead of you.
Here’s to all the good that is to come.
-Sipp
