Am I the only one who feels this way: The older I get, my relationships become equally challenging. When I was a younger man, I assumed it would be the other way around: Relationships should get easier… but they don’t. One of my life themes is to take my relationships seriously, so I brainstormed why relationships seem to be about as easy as a Rubics’ Cube. I came up with a few reasons, which are below.
14 Reasons why being a stubborn jackass can seem like a good idea
a.Your kids get older and parenting demands more sophisticated boundaries and communication. You used to have this parenting thing down pat, but now you are just trying to keep your head above water.
b.Forgiveness becomes more difficult as you get older (both self-forgiveness and forgiving others). For more, see #3.
c.Trust also gets harder, because you know how hard life can be and how other people can let you down.
Some of your biggest dreams are not simply put aside, but life will crush them into little pieces and then kick you in the teeth, just for fun.
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d.You have to set aside more and more of your goals and dreams. Some of your biggest dreams are crushed into little pieces and then life will kick you in the teeth, just for fun.
e.Closely related to #4, you can become more and more jaded and cynical. You may begin to see other people as agents of pain rather than supports. This is why trust and openness can be so damned difficult.
f.You have more wrinkles, rolls, ringing in your ears and unwelcome hairs in uncomfortable places. Loving yourself gets a little more challenging each year.
g.Your bad habits: Not exercising, eating bad shit, having a negative mindset, watching too much TV can mount a multi-pronged attack on you. Life doesn’t even have to get out of bed in order to kick you in the teeth, because you do it to yourself.
h.You have less freedom, not more freedom. Your kids grow up and move out, but they still need your help. Your home gets older and you have more and more things to maintain. And just when you want to blow off some steam… more than ever, you need to be a stable income earner, a together parent and supportive partner.
i.Change gets harder. As you age, you care less and less about New Years resolutions. You may be tempted to set the bar lower and lower each year because you have tried 79 times to change your fitness, your relationships and your career and it doesn’t pan out the way that you want. Life can be tough and it can be very tempting to give up trying to improve.
j.Your friends move away and they move on. You invest in relationships and then they move away, or they move on and leave you behind. Sometimes they just need to move. Other times, they might be jealous of your success, or just pursuing their own goals, or they choose to neglect the relationship.
k.You give less and less of a crap: About what people think, about the state of your hair, about offending people, or about being nice. This can have obvious benefits, because you become more authentic. But in the process, you may become less likeable. The less you care about what people think, the more tempting it is to isolate yourself. That is a deadly combination that will move you into the Jackass zone.
l.Learning, un-learning and re-learning is humbling. As you mature and get older, you want to focus on your strengths rather than where you screw up. It can be tempting to avoid doing the hard work.
Forgiveness will help you seem less like a jerk even if you don’t really care what other people think. Forgiving yourself is important because if you are honest, you will receive some uncomfortable and sometimes unwelcome feedback.
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m.You become impressed with yourself and with how much you think you know: About computers, about smart phones, about relationships, about cars, and pretty much anything else that puts you above other people. And then you put one more nail in your own coffin – you refuse to be honest about how your arrogance irritates other people and how your pride makes you a crappy teacher.
n.And because of all of the above, living in the moment is something that you keep putting off until next week, Thursday. You stop trying to just be and you do all of the time.
5 Things that will help you to avoid being a stubborn jackass as you grow older, mature, or smarter.
There you have it, 14 reasons why maturity, aging and knowing more stuff is difficult. This probably makes you feel depressed. Just add that to the list and that will bring it up to 15. If you want to avoid being a stubborn jackass, then read on. If you don’t care, just stop reading here because I don’t have much more to say to you.
No matter how difficult it is, there are five things that can keep you from being renamed Mr. Stubborn-Jackassiness.
1.Be a continual learner – Ideas keep your mind fresh. Investing in new ideas in the form of books, podcasts, conversations, writing or other creative endeavors will pay off. Who cares if they make you a better leader, a better staff member or a better human being. Ideas are important because they will keep you engaged in your life. You have too much to offer to let yourself go or to throw yourself away.
A flexible mind will make change a little easier. Don’t get me wrong, change won’t become easy. But you will be better able to leverage your experience and your wisdom to make the changes that you want to make. You may not be able to change any faster, but who cares? Fast changes usually won’t last. So what, change slowly. As long as you are moving forward, you are resisting the downward slump.
Ask yourself: you may not have reached all of your goals, but HOW is your life better because of your efforts to improve yourself? Your life may not pan out the way that you envisioned it, but if you continually strive to improve, it will be better than if you just sat on your couch.
2.Be humble – I admit it. I hate Ikea. Much sweating and swearing occurs in my household whenever I buy a new piece of Swedish furniture. It is humbling to buy a new product, like furniture or technology. As humbling as it is, the process of trying new things will open you up to life.
Try new foods, try new social media, try new games. I have relatives who were born before computers even existed and worked most of their career without computers or smartphones. Despite being in their 70’s, they have taken the plunge and they are on Facebook. Trying new things is daunting, but you can do it because you have the persistence that it takes to learn.
One piece of advice: if you are a youngish techie and are getting frustrated trying to explain something to an older person, don’t be a stupid jackass.
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One piece of advice: if you are a youngish techie and are getting frustrate trying to explain something to an older person, don’t be a stupid jackass. Don’t assume, or judge us because we don’t know the terminology. Just keep it simple and if you can’t explain yourself, get someone else who is a better teacher. If we don’t get it, it may be that you don’t know how to teach other people?
3.Believe – Belief can feel like a risk. I don’t just mean religious belief when I talk about the importance of belief. Belief is much bigger than what church you go to. It is important to hold onto your spiritual beliefs and hold onto hope. No matter how challenging it may be, you can improve. You may face serious health challenges that you cannot change. Your only choice might very well be to accept your circumstances, but you can still determine to make the most of your circumstances. No matter your age or your health, hold on. Because belief, wonder, art and humor have the power to awaken your heart.
So try again. Believe in your ability to create. Make a mess of things and make a fool of yourself. Smile, because it makes life a little more fun. Just get outside and look at the sunset, just because. Don’t take a picture, let your eyes be the camera.
4.Forgive – Forgiveness is a compound word, ForGive. Forgiveness is a gift that you give to yourself and to others. Gift giving will keep you flexible and less selfish. Practice giving forgiveness because guilt and shame can make you feel old. Forgiveness may not come naturally. So what? Keep at it. As you grow up, get older and know more stuff, the more important it is to clean out your mental and your emotional “trash bin.”
Forgiveness keeps your relationship muscles flexible. Giving forgiveness will help you to seem less like a jerk even if you don’t really care what other people think. Forgiving yourself is important because if you are honest, you will receive some uncomfortable and sometimes unwelcome feedback. Becoming a better man means taking feedback and using it to grow even if you are not happy with what you hear.
5.Breathe and be – Life gets busy and then the busy gets at you. Busy can erode your joy and eat away at your resolve. Taking time for yourself does not have to mean hours at a time, just like working on your goals does not have to take a huge investment. If you look at it that way, recharging can feel like another task that takes time that you don’t have.
Breathing is one of the most fundamental things that you can do to take in life. Taking time to be outside, to breathe, to walk, to close your eyes is renewing. Slowing down will allow you to use the wisdom that you have accumulated to make better decisions.
You get that following your passion is crappy advice. Sometimes you need to make hard things your passion through hard work. Breathe because things are hard and unrelenting. It won’t make the hard stuff go away, but you will have more of your wisdom and wit on your side.
Unfortunately, life doesn’t come with warning labels. It’s up to you and me to figure that shit out. The great thing is that life may be difficult, but you get to make your own way through it. You may mess up, but remember that perfectionism will make you unhealthy and yes, unhappy.
Can you identify with the feeling that relationships get harder as you get older? I’d love to hear in the comments how you keep yourself fresh, involved and engaged in life.
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This story was previously published on The Good Men Project.
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