If you search for “Felix Dennis” google will call him a poet. I love that. He only started writing poetry at age 54, and I think by most people’s standards his most impressive achievement was that he became a multi-millionaire coming from nothing. So yeah, it’s awesome that he is remembered for his poetry.
Why do I bring this up, you may ask, my astute reader. Well, Felix (I hope he wouldn’t mind me calling him Felix) wrote a memoir in 2006 called “How to get rich” (terrible but also cool title). There he has a line that really stuck with me:
“By then I was thirty-five years old. Barmy! By thirtyfive I was already half dead.”
Already half dead by 35. Great line. This is of course implying that 35 is half of 70 and… you get it, you are smart. Of course this was a bit tongue-in-cheek, as was his style. I don’t think Felix actually thought he was going to die by 70. You are probably thinking you’ll likely live to at least 80, maybe 90 if you can finally stop drinking alcohol and finally start training for that triathlon.
Little did Felix know that his actual “half dead” point was at 33 years old. Sadly cancer caught him a little early. But that couldn’t happen to me, right? Right…
I turned 35 this year. Am I half dead already? Well here are some signs, let me know if any apply to you:
I can’t remember the last time there wasn’t something that hurt
A hangover is agony and lasts at least the whole day
Nutrition discussions are a regular thing (magnesium… am I right guys?)
So, I’m doomed, right? I’m over the peak of the mountain and it’s only downhill from now. Well, first of all let me get the following thought out of the way. I think it is important to accept mortality. No, I’m not depressed, and the fact that one may think I’m depressed for thinking about death is part of my point. A biochemist might tell you we are all slowly oxidizing, one breath at a time. This is a fact that we all learned since we were children, but do we truly grasp it? In Tolstoy’s novela “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, the protagonist is diagnosed after an accident with a terminal illness. It is only at this point that he truly realizes it and eventually accepts his certain death. But only then does he realize he has never lived authentically and uses his last moments on earth to express himself freely.
So your body is now showing you the signs that it is slowly dying, and you have accepted it. That’s ok and I’ll tell you why. Take a look at Mr. Dennis. He is now remembered for being a poet. Even after becoming a multimillionaire, that is his legacy. And he only discovered he can write poetry at the age of 54, 13 years before his death. Isn’t that crazy? It happened to him after he almost died in the hospital. He started living authentically…
So, you have spent your first half of your life struggling to make a career and earn a living. As I said a moment ago, at this point you are already over the peak of the mountain and it is only downhill from now. This is a good thing. You’ve made it. You had your first successes in your career so now you have experience and reputation. It is easy now. Yes, your body and mind are not in that pristine condition anymore, but the scars tell the story of your life, just like the bumps and scratches on an old car tell the story of all its journeys. There are plenty more journeys to embark on. Use the clarity of mind that this realization might give you to live the rest of your life authentically. That’s what I’m planning to do.
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