The trick is growing up without growing old. — Casey Stengel

The trick is growing up without growing old.

Author: Casey Stengel

Insight: Most people think growing up means becoming more serious, more rigid, more... adult. We trade spontaneity for responsibility, wonder for realism, and call it maturity. But there's a particular kind of staleness that happens when you mistake accumulating years for accumulating wisdom. You start saying things like "that's just how the world works" or "I'm too old for that," and suddenly you're 40 or 60 or 70, and you can't remember the last time you felt genuinely curious about something. The real skill is separating the two. You need the judgment and patience that only time can give you—the stuff that actually makes you better at navigating life. But you can keep the flexibility, the willingness to be wrong, the ability to laugh at yourself. A kid doesn't know what's impossible, which is sometimes a problem. But an old-minded adult forgets, and that's always a tragedy. The people who seem most alive aren't necessarily the youngest. They're the ones who still ask dumb questions, change their minds, try things they might fail at. They've grown up enough to know better, but not so old that they've stopped wanting to know more.