A question and a thought. Answer the question first before you read any further:

If you had no idea how old you are, how old would you be? Seriously, what if you had no mirror, no birth certificate, no one to ask—how old would you be?

Now the thought:

“I’ve been hit by the recession—hard. On top of that, my practice area was already declining. The phone isn’t ringing. I’m running out of money, and I’m too old to start over.”

I get e-mails all the time from lawyers who are “too old to start over.” Some of them are 66. Some of them are 45. I heard the same thing from a few lawyers in their late 30s.

How Old Do You Feel?

When I ask lawyers the question, “If you had no idea how old you are, how old would you be?” nearly everyone is younger in their minds than they are in their body (sometimes I think I’m around 12).

If, however, you catch them when they’re complaining about “the recession,” “the competition,” “the changes,” “the technology,” etc., then they struggle with how old they are. We all feel “too old to start over” when we’re in the middle of the pity party. Stuff that would have been a bump in the road at 35 feels like a blown engine and a smashed-up car at 65.

It doesn’t have to feel that way. You don’t have to give up because of your age. The old saying “You’re only as old as you feel” is exactly what I’m talking about here, and you get to decide how you’re going to feel. There’s nothing chronological about how old you feel. Regardless of your biological age, the question is, Are you defeated or are you fired up and ready to go? It’s your decision.

You can give up, or you can get energized.

The Choice Between Keeping Up and Giving Up

I’m on a cruise right now. It’s a sixteen-day transatlantic voyage. As you can imagine, this ship is filled with very old people. I’m talking OLD people (I keep getting hit by those scooters).

We’re all reading—a lot—since there’s not much else to do. Some of the passengers are reading books printed on paper (remember those?). Some are reading on iPads and other devices. Why do some of them choose to keep up and some of them choose to give up?

I’ve wondered the same thing when wandering into the Apple Store early in the morning. Have you ever been? It’s like the Senior Center moved into the space. There are old people everywhere sitting with incredibly young Apple employees teaching the latest technology. Don’t those elderly people know they’re wasting their time since they won’t get to use those new gadgets for long? I suspect many of those folks have decided they’re not “too old to start over.”

Yes, learning new things and doing new things requires curiosity, energy, and enthusiasm. That energy is easy to find if you feel half your age. You’ve got to decide whether you’re going to act your age or act the age you feel. Now is the time for action, not surrender.