You are the one who sees your weaknesses.
Dealing with shortcomings in midlife and old age.

 

Denial and hiding cost a lot of strength and energy and are rarely really „successful“! Besides, my counterpart notices what’s happening and invests energy to hide from me and the deception surfaces. 

I myself missed learning German orthography at school. You will agree that this is quite a handicap when teaching or lecturing. 

My teachers at school and university were sovereign enough not to pay much attention to my many spelling mistakes. I am still grateful to them today. 

I had written texts corrected by my secretary or my wife. Many thanks to them, too! 

When I had to write „publicly“ during lectures or teaching, I mentioned my „problem“ right away and asked for help. When in doubt, I also asked how to spell a word. 

Or I asked that someone write for me, pointing out my weakness. 

With increasing age, I am now over 80, the number of abilities increases,  where my body no longer does what I want it to do. I hear worse, I am no longer sure of my feet, a slight tremor of the hands I have always lived with is now undeniable and annoying. 

Here, too, I follow the strategy of addressing these weaknesses myself and thus achieve that my interlocutors nor I pay much attention to them. 

In my old age, I discovered that the increasing number of shortcomings don’t limit my joy in life, creativity, and ability to work with people – a very liberating finding. 

In my late 50s, I dreamed of living a peaceful and secluded life in so-called retirement. Today that would be a nightmare for me. 

Instead, I am as active as ever and incorporate my body’s increasing weaknesses into my daily life. My surroundings take little notice of them, and in any case, no offence. 

And – I feel as alive as ever. 

How do you deal with your weaknesses?

 

If you feel addressed by this post and would like to talk about it,
then write me a note here on LinkedIn
or give me a call: +49 6703 960 830.