The 1828 Noah Webster dictionary defines old as “outgrown usefulness; belonging to the past; shabby; stale.” I can’t imagine that you would lay claim to any of these adjectives concerning the way you feel about life.
Webster says that young is to be “youthfully fresh in body or mind or feeling.” That’s the definition I like best, and at the risk of sounding immodest, I believe it describes me and the way I feel about life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked, “We don’t count a man’s years until he has nothing else left to count.” I love the Old Testament hero Caleb, who at age 85 asked that he be given the mountaintop where the giants were. He believed he could get rid of them, and he stated that he felt as vigorous and healthy as he had at age 40. Apparently, he was right because there are no nine-foot giants left.
Somebody observed that “a comfortable old age is the reward of a youth well spent.” This point ties into what psychiatrist Smiley Blanton says, “I have never seen a single case of senility in people, no matter how old, as long as they maintain an active interest in other human beings and in things outside of themselves.”
Follow sensible health rules and exercise on a regular basis. Continue to learn new things, fill your mind with good, clean, pure, powerful thoughts all your life, and I believe that you can live well now and finish well.
. . . Adapted from Zig’s book, SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT, published by Thomas Nelson and available in your favorite bookstore, or at http://zigziglar.com
For more on the subject of how to be successful, read Zig’s popular book, “Success for Dummies,” published by IDG Books. It’s at your bookstore, and it’s also available from http://www.zigziglar.com.
