Have you ever wondered what you'll be like in 5 years? 10? Maybe 20? While everyone's path in life is different, there are a couple of similarities that many people experience as they get older. Here are 10 ways our personalities change as we age, and 10 ways that our body does.
1. Increased Conscientiousness
As people grow older, their experiences in life shape them to become more diligent, careful, and reliable. After years of navigating difficult choices regarding career paths, family care, personal finances, and self-discovery, it makes sense why people change their approach to life. We learn to adapt to best fit our situations.
2. Greater Emotional Stability
Teens often get a bad rep for being moody and emotionally unstable, but a bit of that's true don't you think? Because as we get older and become hardened by life's difficulties, we learn ways to cope and better deal with our stress. Instead of letting emotions get the better of us, people grow to become more resilient, learning how to get back up on their feet after a hard fall.
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3. Enhanced Empathy and Compassion
People often say we're at our most selfish during our younger years. That's because we're still dreaming big and working hard to achieve our own goals. But as life progresses and you face a series of personal challenges, whether it be your own or watching other people struggle, it changes you. Once we know what it's like to fail or what the taste of hardship is, we become more compassionate towards other people because we understand that pain.
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4. Decreased Openness to Experience
Once people learn what their likes and dislikes in life are, why step out of that comfort zone? As we grow older, we tend to become less enthusiastic about new experiences. To sum it up, we grow to enjoy what feels familiar and safe.
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5. Improved Conflict Resolution Skills
After years and years of relationship up and downs, from work conflicts to arguments with your significant other, growing older comes with a special gift: improved resolution skills. Learning how to deal with other people and how to effectively communicate your feelings, most people become better at negotiating and handling conflict. We all learn problem-solving strategies that work best for us and the people around us.
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6. Diminished Extraversion
While you might've once made fun of adults who preferred staying in on a Friday night, as you grow older, that's likely who you're going to become. People tend to become less extroverted as they age, preferring small get togethers with close friends over loud and large social gatherings.
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7. Refined Sense of Self
It makes sense that after years of learning about yourself, older adults have a much more solid understanding of who they are as a person. As you overcome all the hurdles life has to throw at you, all those hours spent self-reflecting means you've likely grown to better appreciate and accept yourself too. It's an important stage of growth in anyone's life; it can help you make better life choices that align with what you truly want.
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8. Increased Pragmatism
Once people reach a certain age and have a better understanding of life and the precious time we have in it, we tend to adopt a more pragmatic approach. We start to realize that doing things with a realistic, practical mindset is a much better way to achieve our goals.
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9. Stronger Focus on Personal Fulfillment
While our younger years are focused on making it big and achieving our dreams both professionally and personally, our older years are much more centered around personal fulfillment. Once people reach a certain age and have settled down, it's all about pursuing hobbies and interests that make us happy. Think of it as trying to make the most of the time we have left.
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10. Acceptance of Mortality
Although this may sound a little grim, it's actually quite a good thing. While the thought of our own mortality may haunt us throughout life, as we grow older, we do become more understanding of it. In a way, we learn to change our perspective, accept that life has its cycle, and begin turning towards things that are meaningful to us.
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1. Reduced Bone Density
While we've covered the mental changes that happen as we grow older, how about the physical ones? One major change that people experience is in our bone structure. You've probably noticed how age has made you feel less strong and less sturdy. That's because our bones slowly lose density and strength over time, making us more prone to fractures and breaks. It's important to be more careful about what you can handle.
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2. Slower Metabolism
Compared to when we were much younger, our body doesn't quite have the same level of metabolism as we once had. It slows down quite a bit with age, meaning we're a lot more likely to experience weight gain and lower energy levels when we're older.
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3. Decreased Muscle Mass
If our bones become a lot more fragile, it makes sense that our muscles weaken too. Once you hit your 30s-40s, you'll likely see a big change in your body, especially when it comes to muscle mass. This is very normal though, and is a condition called sarcopenia, which is likely caused by aging.
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4. Weaker Vision
Sadly, as people grow older, their vision is likely going to get worse. It's simply all part of our body's aging process. And it doesn't help that certain eye problems like cataracts, glaucoma, and so much more all become much more common as we age.
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5. Hearing Loss
And if hearing that your eyesight gets worse isn't bad enough, turns out your ears might take a hit too. A lot of older adults will tell you that as they aged, they started experiencing some trouble with hearing too. That's likely due to natural causes, but it can start to feel problematic if it affects your ability to communicate.
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6. Less Efficient Heart Function
As the years pile on, your body will start feeling the effects. It's not just your muscle mass that weakens, but your heart muscles will thicken and become weaker too. It's been studied that the arteries can become stiffer as you age, which makes it harder for the heart to pump blood throughout the rest of your body. This is why certain heart problems become more probable as people age.
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7. Weaker Immune System
It's incredibly important that you look after your health as you get older. Take necessary precautions as needed because your immune system does become less strong and efficient with age. Making it more difficult for your body to fight off those infections and diseases, not only will you be more prone to sickness, it'll also take you longer to recover.
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8. Changes in Skin Elasticity
Saggy skin and wrinkles are changes to the body most people fear, but the truth is, it's unavoidable. Whether you like it or not, aging comes with changes in your skin elasticity. It's just something you're going to have to accept - it comes with growing up and getting old!
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9. Hormonal Changes
As the body continues to transform as you get older, another interesting change you might not have considered is hormone levels. Regardless of gender, both men and women face this. For women, it has to do with menopause which causes a drop in hormone production, while for men, there's just a natural decrease in testosterone levels over time. Don't worry, it's normal!
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10. Cognitive Decline
One of the more serious changes you might face as you get older is experiencing some degree of cognitive decay. It can be quite normal and take the form of forgetting things more often, or it can be much more serious. Conditions like dementia or Alzheimer's become a big concern as you get older and will change your life completely if you're diagnosed with one. They affect so many aspects of brain functioning, including memory, reasoning, and language.
