Be patient with yourself and take heart. Your self-confidence will grow if you seek challenges and worry less about the initial insecurity.

Stay open and curious, and realize that the best is yet to come.

In many ways, the physical dimension of life becomes less important as the soul enlarges. In my late twenties, I was astonished by the elders with whom I began to spend most of my professional time - how vivacious so many of them were, once I looked beyond my negative bias.

Old friends become more and more precious to us as the years pass. They can look at us for who we once were and who we are now, appreciating the difficulties we have overcome, the abilities we have acquired, and the ways we have stayed true to ourselves.

Kindness is never wasted.

With grown children, we can look back at both our mistakes and what we did well in our parenting, having conversations with a greater degree of honesty than was possible before. In getting older themselves, our adult children may begin to comprehend the burdens and strengths we carried from our own parents.

With our intimate partners, we can take responsibility for the parts of ourselves that are hardest to deal with - because we finally know ourselves well enough to do so.