Re-balancing...

May 2010 has gone by so fast this year I can hardly believe it. Time seems to be flying by faster and faster the older you grow, and there never seems to be enough time to do everything I want. Soon I'll be sixty and retired, or not, and soon I will have past the best years of my life.

What are the best years of your life?

Most often people would say its the teenage years, or your twenties. When you're a teenager, you discuss about what you want to do, what you want to be when you grow up. In the twenties, fresh from college and full of energy, you devote yourself to work, work and more work.

When you reach the thirties, it seems to hit you like an unwanted bump on the road. For me, the thirties was more like an awakening. It has been a time of reflection, and for rediscovering what is it you want in life. A time to re-balance.

Goals and dreams previously set out and never reached had to be re-evaluated. Its either do it now, or don't do it. Dreams sometimes get lost and forgotten amongst the zillion other responsibilities. They get pushed aside.

You find yourself on an unexpected path and realize that you've lived through half your life already and yet, there were still so many dreams left untouched.

Will they remain forever dreams, or can I make them into reality?

I want to look back at sixty and see the dreams become a reality. It can be little dreams, like taking care of my health, losing weight, publishing a book, or going on that trip to Africa and seeing the great Victoria falls. Taking a safari out to Kenya and watching the elegant gazelle or having a balloon ride over the Serengeti. Spending a night out in the desert surrounded by a million stars.

More important than just reaching goals, I want to "like" the person I am becoming. We all change overtime. Influenced by our environment, by our associates, we lose a little bit of ourselves, our original self, in the process. The inner child gets buried underneath all that persona.

The bump I hit at thirty was a good one. I like myself more at thirty, than I did in my twenties. I am no longer focused on what "I" want anymore. Other people now are more important. Life is more balanced with more time for my health, my life, my work, and the people around me. The inner child with the dream came alive again.

So take some time out and find that inner child. Re-balance yourself and see if you are living the life you want to live, and then start living it before its too late. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?