18 Things Older People Realize Aren’t Worth Their Time or Energy

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By Jonathan Trent

As you age, the things that once occupied your mind soon become trivial, causing you to accept that some things just aren’t worth worrying about. There are too many to list, but here are 18 things that older people realize are not worth their time or energy.

Gossiping About Others

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Workplace gossip or hushed chatter between friends becomes tedious as you age, with topics that once seemed harmless coming across as bitter. The sooner you realize that the issues you have with someone can be solved by cutting them out of your life, the better.

Condescending People

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The feeling of being looked down upon can hurt a younger person’s mind, causing them to believe that they are worthy of such belittlement. Thankfully, as you get older, you develop a sense of self-worth and a knowledge that condescension is born out of insecurity.

Tolerating Discomfort

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Life’s too short to be uncomfortable, which explains why, as the Institute of Hospitality concluded, people over the age of 65 are the most important demographic for the leisure and hospitality industry. Older people are also far less willing to cheap out on hotels than younger people because they value their comfort.

Physical Aggression

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Age comes with the realization that you probably can’t show too much physical aggression toward someone, as the body no longer possesses the power to intimidate. However, in equal measures, you also realize that being violent and aggressive ultimately gets you nowhere.

Toxic Relationships

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Mature people don’t tend to stick around in toxic relationships; they have grown heightened self-worth and a general lack of energy to be bothered about somebody’s supposed issues with them. They cut these people off, focussing their attention on genuine, loving relationships.

Caring What Other People Think

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One of the most liberating things about getting older is the fact you no longer care what other people think about your personality or the way you look. You are who you are, and there is no point in trying to change that for anybody, especially in our old age!

Keeping Up With Technology

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Technology has been in a constant state of evolution for as long as any living human can remember, with changes becoming even more noticeable in the last two decades. As you get older, you soon realize that it will keep evolving, and there’s little point in stressing about keeping up.

Finding New Music

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Finding a new band to fall in love with is much more of a younger person’s thing, with older people tending to stick with what they know from their younger years. According to Business Insider, some people even stop looking for new music as young as 30!

Wearing the Latest Fashion

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Younger people consider fashion far more important, as many believe it goes a long way in defining their social status. However, those same people will grow old and realize that practicality and comfort are by far the most important factors when it comes to clothing.

Extreme Activities

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The bucket lists of older people are vastly different from those belonging to people in their 20s and 30s; extreme activities such as scuba diving and bungee jumping become far less appealing. You’re much more likely to find relaxing trips, sunsets, and family reunions on the bucket lists of the elderly.

Disappointment

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Disappointment is one of the hardest emotions to deal with as a younger person, but as you get older, you realize that it’s part of life. It’s easier to move on from disappointment with age, and you’ll likely be less likely to set yourself up for it in the first place.

Perfection 

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One piece of wisdom that it seems only older people truly understand is that there is no such thing as perfection and, therefore, no point in trying to achieve it. It’s freeing to be happy with who you are and what you have in life instead of striving for the impossible.

Drinking Alcohol

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As people become older, their bodies become more fragile, and their tolerance for alcohol weakens, with hangovers becoming longer-lasting and more intolerable. The National Institute on Aging also notes that alcohol makes older people far more vulnerable to accidents and injuries, so they tend to avoid overindulging.

Having Lots of Friends

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While you may want your circle of friends to be as large as possible when you’re young, maintaining all those relationships becomes too much effort as you age. It’s much easier having a smaller group of friends with whom you feel a genuine connection and whom you can truly rely on.

Body Shame

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One of the inevitabilities of older age is that your body will change; there’s avoiding it, and it won’t be considered as attractive as it used to be. It’s a sad fact of life, but on the positive side, once you come to terms with it, you soon forget that body shame existed.

Materialism

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When you reach older age, you care a lot less about acquiring things, whether they are house, lifestyle, or fashion-related. You learn to feel comfortable with what you have, and adding new things to your inventory just feels like accumulating clutter. Memories are far more important.

Career Progress

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As you approach the twilight phase of your career, it’s natural that you’ll start losing interest in progressing up the ranks, taking on more stress for a modest pay rise. In fact, Harvard Business Review found that job contentment takes a nosedive at 39, so if anything, you’ll be looking forward to retirement.

Birthday Parties

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Last but not least, when you’ve experienced over 65 birthday celebrations in your life, the novelty tends to wear off. You’ll no longer see your birthday as a huge occasion, and you may even start to dislike them. However, one thing birthdays are great for will always remain: getting to spend quality time with your family and friends.

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