Penny Power's Ponderings: Is life created through a process of elimination?

This week, I have been pondering the way life unfolds and the beauty of getting older. These thoughts have been catalysed by a few things. Moments when I have passed on advice, that can only have been gained through my own adversity and the wisdom gained, plus a photoshoot we did last week that resulted in a set of headshots that I was in sore need of updating (my current LinkedIn one was 9 years old).

I love getting older, and I feel sad for people that seek to deny their age, or those that worry about getting older. A couple of things make me love the joy of age.

Firstly, we cannot gain wisdom without life experiences, and those happen over many years, it is hard to accelerate wisdom. Secondly, I remember the day that my amazing niece, my sister’s daughter, died aged 29, and I looked skywards, through my enormous tears of loss, and promised Vicki that I would value every day that I was allowed to live. What a waste of the gift of time if we don’t have gratitude for it.

Last week, I was asked to do a talk to 40 Lawyers. I asked the room “how many of you remember life without the Internet?", only 3 people did. So, we can calculate that this was a group of young people, many were trainees. I was hired to talk about ‘Adversity, Resilience and Personal Empowerment’, a talk I give called 'Nothing's in your Way’.

A message I like to share is that we should not fear adversity, due to its transformational power. So many of us get angry and upset when things happen that feel unfair or damaging to our lives. But, as I reflected. it was only through adversity that I could design the right life for myself.

It starts with the first heartbreak, the badly chosen boyfriends, the job that wasn’t right for me, the people I chose to avoid due to their angry energy, the pain of loss that gave me the muscles of gratitude, the focus on wealth that lost me my joy and peace. All of these are life experiences that we must have in order to eliminate them and bring in the right things for ourselves.

Life and business are personal; we cannot replicate someone else’s choices, there are no cookie cutters to formulate the perfect life. Role models are great, but no one else is living your life.

As you continue this week, perhaps ponder what you have eliminated through wisdom, respect the pain that the lesson may have given you, and then be grateful for your journey in life. I am sure, each nudge, each 'ouch' is taking you closer to your joy and your personal definition of success.