“I’m too old.” That’s a common refrain from people, who often really aren’t that old, about tackling a challenge they say they want to but haven’t done so.

I’m here to say, let’s be honest and call it what it truly is – fear.

You think that way because you’re too afraid, not too old. You’re too afraid to fail, and that feeling comes without an age requirement. So instead, we attach an excuse to what we’re afraid to do, and we convince ourselves there is nothing we can do to change that so it made no sense to bother even trying.

I felt that way much more in my 20s and 30s than in my 40s and now 50s.

Yes, I felt physically older in my 20s and 30s, and in turn felt I couldn’t do certain things. In reality, I had already failed myself as I ballooned to nearly 250 pounds and wasn’t carrying myself as the husband, father, and man I wanted to be.

And since we tell ourselves we can’t when we’re in that negative state of mind, we find it much easier to simply quit before ever beginning.

But deep down in places we would rather not know exist, we know the truth.

We know we have allowed more great opportunities pass us by because we live in fear. Which leads to regret, which weighs heavily on us no matter how much we choose to ignore it. We can fool others in our live, but we can’t fool ourselves.

I will regret not starting to embrace the now mission statement of Fernandes Fit – and that’s to have empowered my personal and professional success through health and fitness many years earlier.

I can only imagine how much further along I would be in life, personally and professionally. I didn’t start my personal health and fitness journey until I was 38 years old, shortly after my youngest son, Zachary, was born nearly 14 years ago.

If I had begun 10 years earlier, even five years earlier, I could have been 10 or 15 years into helping people empower themselves through their personal journeys to quality health and well-being. I could have helped many more people.

I will take that regret to my grave. But until then, I choose to live life to the fullest…because I’m not too old. As far as I see it, I’m simply getting better with age. You are too. Or at least you can be. You have that choice to make.

You have heard the old adage, “Age is just a number.” But really it’s a state of mind. We can choose to believe we’re too old to do something, or we can choose to do things in our 50s that we did in our 40s, in our 60s that we did in our 50s, in our 70s that we did in our 60s, and so on.

None of us know how much time we have left. But we do we have time right now.

We should take advantage of it, but it requires developing the mindset to do the work, trusting the process and believing in ourselves.

Otherwise, we’re merely existing in life, not living it.

If you want to learn more about developing a strong mindset that breaks down barriers we have placed in our way,or simply have a conversation about your fitness goals and needs, contact me at 814.504.7774 or [email protected], or head to fernandesfit.com for more information.