34, Still Less Than Half
I turned 34 yesterday.
For a few more years, something strange remains true:
I am still less than half my parents’ age.
They were born in 1953.
I was born in 1992.
There is a short window where that math works.
Then the ratio shifts.
Time doesn’t just pass.
It recalibrates.
What’s In It For You
You are also standing inside a shrinking window.
The age you are right now will never exist again.
The ratio between you and the people ahead of you is changing quietly.
What are you rehearsing during this window?
The Arc of Inheritance
My parents grew up in a different economic ecosystem.
Food supply looked different.
Movement standards were different.
Career paths were more linear.
Pensions were more common.
Inflation hit differently.
Social comparison was local — not algorithmic.
I grew up inside:
Abundance and overconsumption.
Engineered hyper-palatable food.
Manufactured sedentary lifestyles.
Career volatility.
Digital comparison at scale.
Information overload.
The pressure systems are different.
But here’s the deeper realization:
The human nervous system hasn’t changed that much.
Our stress response still fires the same way.
Our biology still rewards movement.
Our psychology still craves belonging.
What’s In It For You
If you feel overwhelmed, distracted, or behind — it’s not personal failure.
It’s environmental intensity.
Understanding your environment is power.
Because adaptation is easier when you know what you’re adapting to.
Future Self Continuity
There’s a psychological concept called future self continuity.
The stronger you feel connected to your future self, the more likely you are to make decisions that benefit them.
Saving money.
Training consistently.
Nurturing relationships.
When your future self feels like a stranger, you neglect them.
When they feel like you — just older — you protect them.
Right now, I am building a relationship with 68-year-old me.
Because one day, I will no longer be less than half my parents’ age.
I’ll be standing where they are.
What’s In It For You
If you could sit across from your twice-as-old self today — what would they ask you to start doing?
More walking?
More saving?
Less ego?
More collaboration?
Better sleep?
You don’t meet them someday.
You build them daily.
Seasons — Earlier vs Later
My parents entered certain life seasons earlier than I did.
Marriage.
Children.
Financial pressure.
Responsibility at scale.
By 34, they were already deep into it.
I am not.
And for a while, that comparison can create tension.
But psychology tells us something important here.
There’s a theory called socioemotional selectivity theory.
As we age, our priorities shift from achievement and exploration to meaning and depth.
Younger years chase expansion.
Later years value connection.
What if entering seasons later doesn’t mean delay?
What if it means entering them refined?
More self-aware.
More emotionally regulated.
More financially literate.
More physically capable.
What’s In It For You
Your timeline does not have to mirror anyone else’s.
Earlier does not equal superior.
Later does not equal behind.
The only real danger is entering your next season unprepared.
Refinement beats rush.
The Analogy: Preserving the Library
Here’s the analogy that’s been sitting with me.
Imagine my parents as a library.
Decades of lived experience.
Economic cycles survived.
Social shifts navigated.
Loss endured.
Resilience practiced.
If I don’t build the capacity to understand and preserve that knowledge, it burns with time.
Knowing what I know now — about health, about economics, about psychology — protects what they know.
It allows me to store it properly. Apply it. Expand it.
In biology, we talk about stress inoculation — small exposures to stress build resilience.
In life, conscious adaptation does the same.
If I build strength now, I carry forward what they’ve learned — without inheriting avoidable fragility.
What’s In It For You
You are standing between generations.
Behind you: lessons.
Ahead of you: responsibility.
If you strengthen yourself — physically, mentally, financially — you don’t just benefit you.
You protect the wisdom you’ve inherited.
And you upgrade it.
Inflation, Movement, and Anti-fragility
Their generation experienced inflation.
Mine experiences constant economic recalibration.
Their movement was embedded in life.
Mine must be scheduled.
Their food supply was simpler.
Mine is engineered.
This doesn’t make us weaker.
But it does require intentionality.
There’s a concept from Nassim Taleb called antifragility.
Some systems don’t just survive stress.
They get stronger because of it.
Muscle is antifragile.
Community is antifragile.
Skill is antifragile.
If you stress it intelligently, it grows.
What’s In It For You
The world is not getting simpler.
But you can get stronger.
Stronger body.
Stronger discipline.
Stronger relationships.
Stronger financial literacy.
Strength doesn’t eliminate stress.
It makes stress productive.
34 Is Orientation
For a few more years, I am less than half their age.
Then I won’t be.
Eventually, I will stand where they stand.
The question isn’t whether time moves.
It’s whether I move with it.
This birthday wasn’t about getting older.
It was about direction.
About deciding that the version of me that’s twice as old as I am now will not be accidental.
He is under construction.
Right now.
What’s In It For You
When your ratio shifts — and it will — what will you be grateful you started practicing today?
One Practical Step
If strength compounds, then wear it.
If participation matters, signal it.
If you believe in building durability — physically and mentally — live like it’s normal.
That’s part of why I created the gear inside Invigorate Training.
Not as fashion.
As reminder.
A small external cue for internal standards.
If you want to carry that philosophy into your day —
you can explore it here:
👉
https://store.invigoratetraining.com/
Not because you need a hoodie.
But because identity compounds too.
With your Coaching me the past 2 years Chris Liddle, I have become strong, agile, I conquered my foot pain, I remained consistent I lost weight and gained a better mindset. The tools you offer are beneficial and anyone who is reading this and wants what I have gained should take this seriously and learn from you.