Man You're Old

I mentioned in a previous post that I was going to try and work on my mental game this year.....

Stop. Back up.

"... was going to try and work..."? That's not positive thinking. Start again.

This year I will improve my mental game. I've decided to use the method in the book Mental Edge by Kenneth Baum.

One of the first things the book asks the reader to do is to "write down a limiting belief that you have of yourself as an athlete."

OK. I'm old. How about that as a limiting belief?

How old?

Have you noticed that old people always look ahead to the next birthday when asked their age? You ask some little old lady in a nursing home her age and she will proudly reply in a quavering voice, "I'll be 94 next birthday, my dear." I guess the unstated but understood condition is, "..if I last that long." My father had a variation of that. He was always "pushing" a certain age, as in "pushing 70." I think he used that answer from about 66 onwards. So let's say I'm pushing 60.

Baum then asks, "What irrefutable evidence exists that this belief is true?" Hmmm. Let me see. Here's my birth certificate. Here's my driver's license. Here's my passport. Even the Department of Homeland Security would accept the evidence. I was definitely born during the Truman administration. Irrefutable indeed.

Of course my limiting belief is not so much my chronological age. It would be better stated as, "I'm too old to be really good at Laser sailing." And it is true that the top Laser sailors seem to be in their early 20's and look as if they spend 3 hours a day in the gym and 5 hours a day on the water. But I'm not aiming to compete in their league. I'm not trying to qualify for the Olympics. I'd be quite happy with doing well in local regattas and club racing and to be competitive with the best sailors of my age group.

Paul Simon summed it up well in his song "Old".

The first time I heard "Peggy Sue"
I was 12 years old
Russians up in rocket ships
And the war was cold
Now many wars have come and gone
Genocide still goes on
Buddy Holly still goes on
But his catalog was sold

First time I smoked
Guess what - paranoid
First time I heard "Satisfaction"
I was young and unemployed
Down the decades every year
Summer leaves and my birthday’s here
And all my friends stand up and cheer
And say man you're old
Getting old
Old
Getting old

We celebrate the birth of jesus on christmas day
And buddah found nirvana along the lotus way
About 1,500 years ago the messenger mohammed spoke
And his wisdom like a river flowed through hills of gold
Wisdom is old
The koran is old
The bible’s
Greatest story ever told

Disagreements?
Work ’em out

The human race walked the earth for 2.7 million
And we estimate the universe at 13-14 billion
When all these numbers tumble into your imagination
Consider that the lord was there before creation
God is old
We’re not old
God is old
He made the mold

Take your clothes off
Adam and Eve

Next week in the Mental Edge method - 5 positive beliefs about myself. Geeze - that will be hard.