Neal Unger was born in Anaheim, California, in 1957 is constantly active to pursue his new hobby, namely skateboarding. He is now 61 years old. When a man of his age is generally enjoying retirement by simply playing golf or relaxing while drinking a glass of fresh juice, Neal actually finds a new hobby which is quite challenging for his age.
At first, Neal preferred surfing. Since the age of 9 years, Neal already likes to surf and often perform these activities. But then Neal became falling in love with skateboarding when he was 57 years old. Somewhat hard to believe that when men with the age of fifty become a beginner in skateboarding.
For most people, it would be assumed that skateboarding is a bad choice for an “old man”. Even so, Neal remains on its foundation to continue to cultivate his new hobby. Neal tried to change the word “old” in his mind to become more productive by deepening his interest in being a skater and mastering his sports-related tricks.
The thing that keeps Neal going forward to achieve his goal of becoming a skater in his sixty is because he finds some sort of mental therapy in the activity. He realizes that his age is no longer young, but he also wants to know more about himself at this late age. By doing this dangerous activity, Neal becomes more aware of what to do when he is in a dangerous situation.
As a novice, Neal admits that he is not yet quite masterful in skateboarding. Not all tricks can be done by him, maybe only about 10-20 percent of basic tricks that he can master. But his passion to keep learning keeps him safe while skateboarding. Neal uses this activity as meditation and self-discovery.
Neal’s principle of life is that a man must remain strong and young despite being old. To inspire others, Neal poured all his thoughts on life, especially his thinking as an “old man” in the eBook he wrote with the title Dude Logic.
The man with the nickname “The Dude” also the founder of the Next Up Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of children and adolescents through skateboarding and action sport. Through the organization, Neal wants to inspire young people and many people that nothing is impossible to do. If a guy his age is still strong on skateboarding, then the younger one has the ability to do it, maybe even much stronger than him.
Neal always has positive thoughts and behaviors on life. Thanks to the confidence he always instilled in himself. He likens it to when doing skateboarding, the more we try and practice new trick in skateboard, the possibility of failure was inevitable. However, we will keep continuing to try to get up and repeat it.
So confidence requires so many failures, as well as success. Failure and success will naturally build someone’s confidence. It may not be immediately realized, but time will show that things will gradually improve.
That’s how Neal lived his life. For him, age is just a number. Do not make the numbers that increase in value as a barrier to become more productive.
Our self may be trapped in an old body that is often used as an excuse to live lazily, but actually many things that we can explore with the old body. By being more productive, the body will become healthier because of the exercises. Although not exactly like the one that has done by Neal Unger.
