10 Observations from a 47 Year Old Idiot
In 1996 I participated in my very first fantasy football league. And for perspective on just how long ago that was, consider the following:
- There was an actual in-person draft
- Each person brought a folder or binder full of papers…like printed from a printer
- The draft took 4-6 hours, (and 4-6 cases of beer)
- Each week, we manually tabulated our scores…often by watching highlights on television. Because, you see, phone modem Internet access was just too painfully slow. (who remembers the AOL sound?)
- Yes, you read the last bullet point correctly
So, despite the technological challenges “of the day”, I entered my first fantasy football league. The only pressing question was: What do I name my team?
While many of my league competitors used names of personal endearment, or relived mascots from their glory days…I chose something a bit more subtle.
“23YOG” (pronounced ’23-why-oh-gee’)…or The 23 Year Old Genius.
OK, perhaps slightly more arrogant than subtle. Let’s just call it youthful confidence.
Today I stand before you, on my 47th birthday, more than 24 years older than the 23YOG…and I’ve gotta tell you, I don’t feel like a 47YOG.
I’m not saying that I feel like a 47 year-old-Idiot, although that makes a more compelling blog title. But let’s just say there’s not an easy acronym for a 47 year old ‘who thinks he’s truly starting to understand some things’…about life, about love, about connection, about career, and about carrying the right perspective into each and every day that I have left.
Here are a few of those things: (actually, ten)
1. I used to think that money could buy happiness. Then I thought that money could never buy happiness. And now I’m sure of it…money can buy happiness, if you spend it the right way.
2. There’s something unique about the friends you make between 18 and 24. Those ‘coming of age’ bonds seem to run especially deep.
3. Relationships and Experiences are the only ‘possessions’ that really matter.
4. Our emotional state (and thus attitude) is dramatically affected by our expectations. They must be carefully managed.
5. Baby back ribs and coconut cream pie are magnificently complimentary, and delicious.
6. Happiness is not a destination, or a ‘pot of gold’ at the end of the rainbow. It is a state of existence, and it is readily and immediately accessible via the observation of gratitude.
7. Confidence can only be weaponized while being tempered with humility.
8. Real leadership requires the internal presence of both the servant, and the savage.
9. Consistency is the human trait most underrated.
10. Without the genuine desire to place others before yourself, you will rarely, if ever…be the beneficiary of true love. I am just now learning this, thank God.
I’m sure there are more things that I have learned, and I’m positive there are many more to be learned.
But it’s late…and I’m tired. My belly is full, as is my heart.
Thank you friends…for spending some of your precious time listening to this 47 year old father, boyfriend, partner, son, friend, student…and often times, idiot.
