Welcome everyone to Old People Wisdom. I wanted to introduce myself and talk about the vision for OPW. I was sitting one day thinking about the things I wish I had known when I was younger. They say with age comes wisdom, and there is some truth to that. Yes, we all know some older people that don’t seem wise, and we know some young people that have shown immense wisdom. However, you have to admit that most of you have gained some wisdom in the last 5, 10, 20 years. Life has a way of teaching things the hard way.
I wanted to find a way to give back and help others. This idea popped into my head one night when I was thinking about how averse I am to trying new things. I’ve always been this way. I wish I had tried more things when I was younger. I wish I was encouraged to try more things when I was younger. Fear always got in my way. Have you ever heard of the YouTube page, “Dad, how do I?”? It’s an amazing man who shows people how to do everything from unclog a sink to how to jumpstart a car to how to tie a tie and one just expressing how proud he is of YOU. Not everyone grew up with both parents. Some of us had an absent father. Some had no father at all. We relied on other family and neighbors to teach us, but we were fortunate to have those people in our life. Some aren’t that lucky. I don’t know how to tie a tie, but I have gathered some wisdom over my 5+ decades on earth. I can share that with you all. I’m old, but I’m not super old. Just because it’s called Old People Wisdom, doesn’t mean that all the wisdom is going to come from old people. It’ll be a mix of every cross section of life. Diversity is important.
So all that being said, I’d like to establish a few things right off the bat. Greg Reid (Award Winning Author, Speaker, and Film Producer) gave a great analogy. I’ll likely butcher what he said, (Forgive me Greg!) but this was the summation. He held up his hand and said it was filled with sand. The sand was the opinions, advice, etc of others. If it doesn’t help you, let that grain of sand slip right through your fingers. The ones that do though, grab on to them and use them. I’d like you to do that here. If something doesn’t speak to you, leave it. If you know someone it could help, share it with them. If it’s speaking to you, grab on to it and do some contemplation and use it to better your life.
The goal is to have a weekly column. I’ll try to have extra content on our social media sites. No promises. My life is very hectic. If you’d like to hear about a particular topic, let me know in the comments. I might just include it in the future. I have a huge list that I want to cover already. If this thing takes off, I’ve got some pretty interesting family, friends, mentors, and acquaintances that are very wise. Maybe I can convince some of them to come join us.
