The WakeUp Call Newsletter
The Voice of the WakeUp Revolution!
March 2007 Issue

Welcome back! I have always declared February to be my 'birthday month' and as I turned 40, I decided to take a month off from this newsletter and consider what turning 40 meant to me. Many people asked me how it felt to be 40. How does it feel? Do I have a choice?

What? Speak up! I'm getting old...

- Mike
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FEATURED STORY

This Side of 40

Now that I'm a month on this side of 40, people have told me that 40 is the new 30. What the heck does that mean? Was there a specific way I was supposed to feel or believe when I was 30? Why are you telling me that now? Why didn't you tell me that when I WAS 30?

Instead of comparing our current age to a past one - looking back and pretending we feel ten years younger, let's look forward and declare that 40 is the new 40! 45 is the new 45! 50 is the new 50! Even 30 is the new 30! Let's begin today, look forward instead of back and make a new beginning, no matter what our age.

Physically I feel no different than I did in January, way back when I was in my thirties. But I realized that how I felt with regards to my age was completely a choice I had to make. Would I choose "I can't believe I'm 40. Where did my life go? Where is it going? What happened to all of those dreams I had when I was younger? I'm getting older and slower and I can't do the things I used to do." Or would I choose "I am 40 and I've never been so energized about my life! I have a vision and new dreams to live into. I have a beautiful, loving family and wonderful friends. I continue to learn how to create possibilities from any situation. I'm on a passionate road of discovery and I am curious and excited about taking the journey and seeing it unfold. I have a lot of living to do."

How many of you have a dream you let go by and didn't jump on the bus? How many of you have something you wish you could do if only you were younger? How many of you say things like "it's too late" or "I'm too old" or "If only I had started when I was younger..."

My gram fell and broke her arm last month. (She must have read the January Issue) The pain she had was excruciating. Even worse, she broke her right arm - and she's very much a righty. Her left arm is worthless - can't eat, can't write, etc. At 92, that is a very scary proposition and we were all bracing for a potentially difficult and challenging time. My gram prides herself on her independence and capabilities. She still gets her hair done each week. She still cooks dinner for herself. She still lives in the same garden apartment that my dad grew up in, in Queens. She still plays Rummy Q and Mah Jong with her friends and she is even the designated driver! She says her 80 year old friends feel that they're too old to drive! I guess 90 is the new 80.

So when she found herself completely dependent on someone else last month and in extreme pain, we wondered what she would choose. Would she give up? Would her 'age' finally catch up to her? Would the light start to fade?

SO here's what is happening. After 92 years, she has learned how to eat with her left hand. She has learned how to write with her left hand a little bit. She let go of the stranglehold she had on her hurt pride and has let her aide help take care of her. She is smiling and shining as brightly as ever. AND, she has made an incredible recovery. She even went driving the other day! At 92 she has decided that she is not 'too old' to live.

Has her choice caused her recovery or was it the other way around? I don't know for sure. But I have to believe that her choice to not use "I'm too old" as an excuse has helped her learn new things and has sped up her path to wellness.

Yes there are things I can't do and can't be. That is reality. I'll never be a professional football or baseball player. These are dreams that have passed me by. But although my physical limitations may prevent me from fulfilling them exactly as I had created them, I can still experience the same satisfaction as I would have, in a different way. When I finish a talk or a workshop and the audience responds with laughter, cheers and compliments, that is as good a feeling as any touchdown has ever felt!

It is the same for you. Maybe you feel you can't be a professional pianist but you can experience tremendous joy by adding it back to your life. Take a deeper look at your own unresolved dreams and ask yourself the following questions:

• What did you want to be when you were a kid?

• Is there something that you want to explore now?

• What's stopping you?

• Separate the facts from your assumptions in your response above. Look hard - you may be disguising assumptions as facts.

• What's one step you can take this week to explore that possibility? It can be a very small step. Just get started.

We all get older every second of every day. But 'being too old' is a choice. Now that I'm on this side of 40, I am choosing to be as young as I ever have been but a whole lot smarter.

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Overheard In the WakeUp Room... Blog Digest for March 2007

• One Last Drive - A story that one of my students shared with me about a taxi driver that picks up a fare that changes his life.

• An Orange Glow and the Smell of Smoke - a few weeks ago, I was teaching a teleclass on a Wednesday night when all of the sudden my wife came downstairs screaming that the neighbor's house was on fire. (true story)

• A Horse, A Man and a Clear Priority - The racing world was saddened when it finally lost Barbaro, the horse who's destiny to win a Triple Crown was lost when he broke his leg coming out of the gate 9 months. However, it is the jockey who's act of courage was extraordinary in this story...

Share Your Own Thoughts here

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Tenets of the WakeUp Revolution:

It's realizing that life is a gift,
                                         and every single day counts!

It's looking forward and saying 'what now,
                                         ' not looking back saying 'I wish I had'!

It's designing your life the way you want it to be,
                                         so life doesn't just 'happen' to you!

It's believing in the possibility of your desired life,
                                         not a life of compromises!

It's remembering what's really important,
                                         so you can slow down and breathe again!

It's having courage to take small steps now,
                                         instead of watching days slip past!

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© 2006 Jaffe Life Design LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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"Mike Jaffe is a Human Wake-Up Call and the founder of the Wake-Up Revolution!^TM For more information on Mike's powerful and insightful speaking, coaching and workshops, or to receive Mike's inspirational audio course "7 Steps to Wake Up and Live An Extraordinary Life!" visit www.jaffelifedesign.com."