How To Create Your Fabulous Myth

Each time I watch the movie, The Usual Suspects, I think I am going to finally figure out all the plots and characters. I never do. Who is Kaiser Sosay? Does he exist? Or is he an invented character to control events and people? The movie is a study in the power of myth: how it works, and how we respond.

We create myths about ourselves; what drives, delights, and scares us. We turn a myth into a false belief by giving the myth power. When we tell ourselves “I can’t do that. I’m not talented enough”, we find that we will never succeed, because success is for the talented. And we are not talented. We do the same things with age. “Old people don’t do that. I’m old, therefore; I don’t do that”. We don’t try. We feed our own myth about who we believe we are.

Old people do not play on monkey bars and make fools of themselves. They ride the ferris wheel, not the roller coaster. They certainly do not try Parkour. With their lack of talent, they do not enter speech competitions, play in an amateur orchestra, or hike the Himalayas.

We live in a world of myth that we create. The beauty of it is, we can change that myth. It is only our belief. We give it power. We can take away it’s power. It’s simple to change, but not easy. Simple is creating a new myth about yourself by challenging yourself: go roller skating, whitewater rafting, learn to play the tuba. Ok, maybe not the tuba if you want to continue to live in your neighborhood. None of it is easy. First you have to buy the roller skates; that takes initial effort. Then you have to put them on, stand, and move forward without falling. All scary stuff. Your myth about a lack of talent kicks in. Maybe you really are too old. Will you challenge it, and create a new myth? In that moment, you decide. Are you living in the fearful shadow of Kaiser Sosay, or are you declaring a new, fabulous myth about your resilience, talent, and what it means to be older than 11?

That’s Aging Intelligently.