50歳を目前にして思うこと

人生も50歳手前に近づくと大体、自分の素質や強み・弱みが分かってくるようになります。

仕事でもプライベートでも、若い頃のように先輩や年上の方に厳しく言われることもほとんどなくなり、今後の人生が今までの延長線上に想像できるようになってくるように感じます。

言葉を換えると、何もしなければ何の変化もないまま歳をとっていくだけで、『加齢による心身の衰え』や『世界がどんどん変化していくこと』を加味すると、『現状維持は後退すること』を意味することになりそうです。

人生100年時代と言われ、『これまで生きてきた倍の年月を惰性で生きていくこと』を想像するとゾッとします。
最近、漠然としたこのような危機感がどんどん膨らんできて、まずはこれまでの知り合いの人達と、積極的に意見交換をすることから始めようと思い立ちました。

学生時代の何人かの友人に連絡を取って久しぶりに会話をしていると、自分の悩みを解決する様々なヒントをもらうことができました。

中でも、当時から思考回路や笑いのツボが似ていると感じていた親友の近況を聞くと、自分がこれまで直面してきた困難とそっくりの経験をしていることが分かりました。

知り合ってから30年近く、これまでかなり長い時間を共有してきたにも関わらず、話題を『これまでとこれからの生き方について』に絞って話し合った結果、大げさに言うと『自分の悩みを共有できる親友が新たに現れたような感覚』がありました。

働く業界は全く違えども、互いの生き方のヒントになることはたくさん提供し合えそうです。
この観点で、少しずつ人脈を広げていこうと思います。

Thoughts on the verge of turning 50

As you approach the age of 50 in life, you will generally begin to understand your own qualities, strengths, and weaknesses.

In both my professional and personal life, I rarely have to be harshly told off by seniors and elders as I did when I was younger, and I feel as if I can imagine my future life as an extension of what I have been doing.

In other words, if we do nothing, we will just grow old without any change, and if we take into account the “decline of mind and body due to aging” and “the world is changing rapidly,” it would seem that “maintaining the status quo means going backward.

It is said that we live in an age of 100 years, and I shudder to think of ‘coasting through twice as many years as I have lived so far.

Recently, this vague sense of crisis has been growing and growing, and I decided to start by actively exchanging opinions with people I have known in the past.

When I contacted some friends from my school days and had conversations with them after a long time, I received various hints to solve my problems.

Among others, when I asked about the recent situation of my best friend, with whom I had felt a similar thought process and sense of humor since that time, I found out that he was experiencing the very same difficulties I had faced in the past.

Although we have known each other for nearly 30 years and have shared a considerable amount of time together, our discussion focused on “how we have lived and how we will live in the future.” To put it bluntly, I felt as if I had a new best friend with whom I could share my problems.

Although we work in completely different industries, we seem to be able to offer each other many hints on how to live.

I will gradually expand my network of contacts from this perspective.