When Christ died on Calvary, his last words were "It is finished." Nothing was left to be done. He met every goal on earth.
One of the hardest things about aging is the realization that when I pass from earth to heaven many of my goals will never have been reached. I either didn't pursue them as I ought to have or I ditched the effort halfway through. These might include such everyday goals as perfecting a pullup or eating less junk food. Often they include spiritual areas of life, such as quitting a bad habit or overcoming a particular character fault.
As we age, personality traits like conscientiousness and agreeableness often increase. The result is that older people may become more reliable and pleasant. But they can also experience changes like increased irritability or emotional resistance to being slighted due to various factors. The toxic person inside rears its ugly head. You get worse with the way you handle disappointments. You lose impulse control that often goes hand in hand with poor money habits. Your social skills suffer as you become focused more and more on solitary hobbies. You begin to think you're more special than others and deserve more care and attention than you're receiving. Ultimately, you lose motivation to improve, to grow, to change, to overcome bad habits and cultivate newer, better ones. Often you become too proud to ask others for help because it requires you to admit your lack of self-sufficiency. Conversely, you can develop a savior complex and let others rob you of giving yourself the care you give to others.
Do I struggle with any of these? All of them. Nobody knows my character defects better than I do. This doesn't depress me, any more than the fact that the moon affects the ocean tides depresses me. I am, however, very mindful of my flaws and am committed to working on them. When I was younger, I thought the goal of life was perfection. If I worked hard enough, I could overcome all of my flaws and reach some level of well-adjusted state where everything works in harmony. But the older I get, the more I realize nobody reaches perfection. "Even monkeys fall from trees," says the old Japanese proverb.
I think one of the greatest gifts of aging is understanding yourself. For example, I've always been detail-oriented (a good thing for an academic). This has served me well in certain situations. But that same quality can make me impatient with others when I should be exercising godly patience and forgiveness. Those who need to hear this most are people (like me) who've built their identity on always coming through, never failing. But perfection is an illusion. Instead, the goal is to become an improved version of yourself, one who is more Christlike and more genuinely Christian.
This means that, as we continue on our journey of personal growth, we cannot forget that progress, no matter how small it may seem, is a step in the right direction. Let's also remember that it's never too late to start, even if you're about to turn 74. If you never thought that much about setting goals, consider making some for each of the areas of your life -- physical, social, mental, and spiritual. Then post them in a place you can see them daily. When tempted to settle into your old habits, try letting God restimulate your desire to keep on keeping on instead of giving up. The battle against our fallen sin nature is just that -- a never-ending battle. So be like Jesus. He kept his eye on the prize where the Father was beckoning him onward, and he wasn't about to turn back or quit until he could say, "It is finished."
I realize that sometimes it's hard to change old habits. But the task is made immeasurably easier when we consider that everything we have is a gift from God. If you choose to follow the Lord as you age (and make no mistake about it, it's your choice), you need not worry about any limitations you think you have. His promise in Matt. 28:20 stands: "I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age" (MSG).