How to get better as you get older

Happy Sunday and thank you for being here with me for this week’s newsletter!

There’s a lot I’ve been thinking about in the pipeline, so make sure that you subscribe now so you don’t miss out on any part of our community’s journey!

On my end, it’s been a long week - I’ve been spending the little free time I have studying for the Series 66 license exam, so haven’t really had much of a minute to breathe and relax, but hopefully when you hear from me next Sunday, it’ll be all said and done and I’ll get a chance to take a break. 😪🧘

I just got a new camera, in the hopes to up my social media content quality and start up my Youtube channel, so I’m super excited about that! Lot’s more to come in the months ahead once I can content plan and give it more thought when this exam is out of my headspace. 😄

Somebody write that down!

Today I wanted to talk to you about something that I heard in church a few weeks ago, because it really resonated with me as I take on the real world week after week.

I wrote it down as soon as I heard it, and before I get into it, I want to encourage you to do that as you encounter things that you find moving as well. In the same way that when you like a song, you add it to your playlist of liked songs, or if you watch a video you like, you save it to watch it again later, I think it’s really beneficial to - as you have real-life encounters - write things down.

For me, I just whip out my notes app and type it in a new note, or if I have enough time to sort through my notes app, I’ll write it down in my “Newsletter ideas” tab to share with you.

I think it’s so helpful to save the things that you hear, learn and experience to be able to come back to them later, because that’s one of the best ways to be intentionally reflective and to learn from the experiences that we have as people. It’s as easy as writing a sentence or a quote you liked, or writing down a memory that you enjoyed.

Give your brain a hand with remembering things. Put it in the notes app for later! ✍🏻📝☺️

What I wrote in my notes app that I wanted to share

Every week, a part of my writing process is to go through the things that I’ve written down and reflect on moments that impacted me. If I don’t have an idea from the top of my head from a specific week, I have a treasure trove of inspiration from my notes app to draw from.

As I sat to write this week’s newsletter, the quote in my notes app that I re-read was:

When the pastor said that, I thought “damn, he really has a point there!” and pulled out my notes app and stuck it in there for later.

Older doesn’t mean better 👴🏽🤔

Now, as I reflect on getting older year after year and slowly figuring out what my life is going to look like, I’m reminded by that quote that I have to be intentional about making myself better.

As I think more about that quote, it also comes to mind that if older doesn’t necessarily mean better, then in phrased another way, there’s the possibility that, as I’m getting older, I could also be becoming worse! There’s the possibility that we could fall into bad habits or the wrong crowds and negative behaviours and cycles as we get older too.

There’s the possibility of becoming stubborn and stuck in our ways and very closed-minded, so we have to be super aware that being older, more experienced, and having more years behind us, doesn’t automatically equate to being a better person.

How do I become better as I get older?

I want to crystal clear here - older does equate to being more experienced. It automatically equates to having had more time. But unless you learn from those experiences, reflect on the things that you learnt and felt in the years that passed by and come away from them better able to navigate the future, you probably didn’t get any better as a result.

Personally, for me, that means reflecting week by week and month over month to say “hey, what did I learn this past month and how am I any different as a person (if any at all)?” And then, answer the question, “if I feel different as a person or if I learnt something new, how has it changed/affected me? Positively or negatively?”