52

Contrary to the popular adage, age isn’t “just a number”. Age isn’t just A number. Age is THE number. Quite literally, it might be the most important number of a person’s life. I am 52. If I walked up to you and, absent any context, proclaimed, “Hi, I’m Matt and I’m 52.” There would no doubt to what I was referring. I only get to live this one life, I was born once and I will die once… and aside from quality, age is the scoreboard. We only get to live on this earth for so long, and the goal for most is to have that number be as high as possible.

Turning 52 was as anti-climactic as it should have been. I’ve always had an affinity for odd numbers, and I’ve always liked the number 51, one of those numbers that just always resonated with me. Maybe because it is 17 x 3, maybe because it’s the beginning of 5150 (not a bad album). All in all, 51 was a good age. I’m thankful I got to live all the way through it. I do still remind myself (often) that I am fast approaching the age my mom was when she died. She was only 58… so it’s been on my mind more once I hit 50.

I hadn’t really thought of 52 much until the day I turned it. Fifty-two has long been the number I use when I recite the lesson from the great Mark Victor Hansen in “38 Proven Ways to Close That Sale”.

Photo credit: Tamra on Flickr

If you know the answer you can frame the question! If the answer is 52, the question could be, “how many cards are in a deck of cards?”, “how many weeks are there in a year?”, “what is 13x4?”. The lesson is that there are multiple paths to get to the same ending. A lesson I’ve thought a lot about the last several years.

In my 52nd year, I still find myself struggling with the same things (some bullshit and some non-bullshit) I’ve struggled with for most of my adult life. But I have made progress in caring less about the things I don’t need to care about.

I don’t spend as much time doing many of the things I used to do. But that has made more time for other things. I’ve invested in some relationships more and I’m always working to be a better husband.

There’s a great deal of negativity out there in the world, but I have my health. My family members are doing well. I lived another year. That’s a lot to be thankful for.