Do you ever look back at times in your life when you might have been happier or more successful than you are now? Did you make certain decisions or did certain events happen that have now reduced your level of life from its former statue? Have you peaked too early in life?
Yesterday I was having a conversation about the career of a rock-star. In the early days a singer or band might be trying out, struggling hard to get gigs and make money. They become recognised and pretty soon they are on top of the charts, their tracks reach number 1, they are asked for TV interviews, play at music festivals and everyone knows their name. Then they start to slip. The rock-star lifestyle gets to them and soon every tabloid newspaper has pictures of them in compromising situations. The next album isn’t as good as their previous one, and fans have already moved on to the next up and coming band. They fade away to nothing and are never heard of again. All this before they reach 25. So do these people peak too early in life?
Well fortunately for most of us, we will never have these sorts of issues because we’ll never be rock stars! But on a less extreme scale, I’m sure there are times in our lives when we look back and think about when times were better than they are now. For a long time this was true for me after I left university. Back then my day consisted of 3 or 4 hours working, talking to my friends and classmates, going to clubs, tae kwon do and always having enough time for a pub lunch or mid week pint. Those days came sharply to an end after graduation. Working in the real world meant getting up at 7am, ironing a shirt every day and getting back from work at 6pm every day, too tired to do anything. Money started becoming an issue, where you had to pay your way in life; for a car to get to work and pay off student loans. For a good while I remember thinking my life had peaked with university and things would just never get better than those days. That is of course until I learned how to better handle my free time and get into a better routine.
So what is the perfect situation? Maybe peaking in the middle of your life is the best situation. That way you spend a good part of your life working to get where you want to be. By the time you achieve your best, you can then relax and take comfort with your achievements and start enjoying the rewards for your hard work. An example of this might be to work hard during school and Uni. After this you work hard at a graduate level job in your profession and then one day you realise you are a regarded expert, a team leader, a branch manager or CEO of the company. You no longer have to push hard and can start enjoying the luxuries in life with all that money you have saved up. Holidays, new car, Sunday afternoon in the garden, watch your kids grow up. Getting a balance of working hard at the start means you enjoy the benefits which await and you know you truly earned them.
What about those who never peak? Are they the losers who never get to where they want to be, never achieve anything, lay-about bums? Are your taxes paying for their sorry existences?
What if the ones who never peak are the ones who just continue to rise and rise? There is no peak for them because they are always ascending to new levels! They continue to work on their lives to improve their situations in all aspects; their income, enjoyment, career. For them there is no final destination to reach because things just keep on getting better and better. Nothing can stop them! If a situation comes which pulls them down, like for instance the company goes bust and they lose their job, or they are declared bankrupt, they learn their lessons and push on.
So have you peaked too early in life? Or was that a plateau from which you will push on and ascend to even greater, limitless heights…
Please let me know your thoughts by commenting or emailing.
