01 Mar Matt Haig

“[T]he cure for worrying about ageing is…ageing.”

As we age, there is less aging ahead to worry about and less time remaining in our lives to spend worrying about things generally. Moreover, as worrying, stress, exacerbates aging; hopefully, as we age, we realize worrying about aging or most things is a fool’s errand.

As we age and realize the future and past matter little, there is little to worry about and we’re grateful for whatever our present circumstances as they could always be worse. Gratitude is the essence of happiness and in turn leads to less worrying as happiness and worrying are mutually exclusive.

When we’re young and don’t worry about aging, we worry about other things that distract us from gratitude. We can dispense with these distractions when we think of our present circumstances from the perspective of someone who’s aging; that will have us live wiser as well. Alternatively, we can embrace Keith Richard’s attitude: “Getting old is a fascinating thing. The older you get, the older you want to get.” In other words, just enjoy yourself now and be optimistic about all that’s to come.