Do What You Want To Do

This is my friend Kathryn.

She’s just launched a new voice-acting career. She’s 72.

The other night before class, she mentioned how inspired she was by my yoga studio’s origin story, especially the part about persisting for years without making the rent or having anyone show up. 

She said it gave her hope because this new voice-acting thing of hers isn’t launching as fast as she’d hoped. 

I reminded her I was 50 when I opened the studio and told her that if I were launching this yoga business now, at 70, the way she’s launching her new business? I would have to think of this business in a completely different way. 

My Why was different back then. 

Back then, I had a longer runway and more time. I wanted to teach, build community, and make a little money. Money was a pain point because I paid a lot of rent for the space. I could only continue to stay open if I could pay the rent. 

But today, rent and money wouldn’t be such a concern. Money’s important, but when you feel your time horizon getting closer, or shorter, or whatever time horizons do, money plays a less critical role.

Concerns about making a ton of money, achieving fame or notoriety, or making it big in your industry—concerns you have at 50, aren’t important at 70. 

You realize you have no control over fickle economic or cultural conditions.

But what you do control is your happiness and growth.

You have plenty of lifespan left to grow. 

You have every single day you have left.  

The moment you stop growing is the moment you die.

Even if you continue walking and breathing.

 If you stop being curious, taking risks, launching businesses, writing novels, and going for PRs, you’re basically a zombie.

This is true at any age but becomes critical as that time horizon begins to shorten.. 

 I wanted to tell Kathryn that persistence in the face of failure has no inherent nobility. 

Yeah, I sat in the yoga studio for three years before making the rent, but I didn’t just sit there. I tweaked my hours; I figured out advertising, I sat in the local library with their yoga book collection, and answered questions. 

I made a million mistakes, then slowly figured it out.

Kathryn may not be getting too many gigs at the moment, but I suspect she’s getting a charge out of this new life and venture. I bet she’s excited to wake up in the morning because she gets to go into her sound studio and work on her craft. I’ll bet every day she’s learning new things about audio, and meeting new people who can help her.

By this growth and happiness metric, she’s already a wild success. That’s because she can measure her success in life not by sheer persistence but by how much she’s growing.