We Were All Programmed to Feel Old — And It's Making Us Shrink

So this is what the prompt said.

Are you ready for this? And b- try it yourself actually.

Okay, are you ready to write this down? "Can you remember a moment when you said yes to something without knowing where it would lead and felt your life begin to open or shift?" And I thought, "Yeah, I can.

Several times actually." Uh, moving to New York in my mid-20s to chase my dreams of being an actress in the theater, walking away from the theater once I became a mom in my late 30s, and then picking up a camera for the first time in my 40s and becoming a photographer.

That shift, by the way, from actress to photographer took about five years, and I felt quite tortured for a lot of it because I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up.

[laughs] And before that, all I ever wanted was to be an actress, so I always had a focus.

Anyway, uh, and then the one I wanna talk about today, the time where- where something opened and shifted 'cause I took a step into something that I didn't know where it was gonna lead, yeah, it was saying yes to this podcast.

And I wanna talk about what that yes opened up, and I'm not talking about the highlight reel.

Uh, uh, the ...

I'm talking about the real real, the real version including the part I'm still working on.

When I started this podcast, I took a minute and I asked myself, "Well, how am I gonna know if it's successful? Is it like the number of downloads? Is it gonna be because I have brand deals or partners, you know, wanting to advertise on the podcast? Is it fame and fortune?" [laughs] I decided no.

I decided that the actual success was gonna be from the doing of it, from who I would have to become in order to produce a podcast on a weekly basis.

So the question was, "Who would I have to become?" And it turns out I became a lot of people I didn't expect.

I became someone who gets on camera.

For the first five years this podcast was audio only, and frankly I was afraid to go on camera, and that fear felt ...

Like I didn't even consider it.

It was that big.

So when I did get on camera for the first time it started with m- silly reels on Instagram, lip-syncing songs from my youth like from The Cure with filters that made me practically unrecognizable.

I had like a nose ring and pink hair the first one.

[laughs] It was actually kind of fun.

Um, it took me back to my performance days, so that was cool.

But it wasn't really on target with what I'm trying to do with this podcast.

And, you know, then I eventually realized that not everyone on social media even listens to podcasts, and I realized that that kind of real estate of social media was another chance to actually talk about positive aging and reach people i- in ... where they're at.

So then I had to learn how to just be myself and talk straight to the camera.

Man, was that scary.