What Joanna Gaines Wants You to Know About Aging
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Joanna Gaines opened up about aging and letting go in a new interview with Drew Barrymore.
“I’ve learned, especially as I’ve gotten older, it’s so much more fun to let go,” she said.
The life lesson she shared is a powerful one.
On a recent episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, Joanna Gaines, her husband Chip, and Barrymore herself gathered ’round the talk show coffee table to have a chat about aging. Joanna, in particular, detailed how she’s learned to “let go” of all the things that hold her back as she’s gotten older.
Barrymore began: “I think the pressure is so self-imposed, and I’m starting to let go a little bit. And I have not known how to let go. I am like, white-knuckle monkey claw—nothing is going to get out of that grip.”
Joanna laughed, and agreed, that she, too, is a planner and perfectionist. “I feel like my whole life has been: ‘How do I predict? How do I control? I don’t want surprises,” she explained, which could apply to anything from one of her many renovation and design projects to the random surprises that aging brings, like fine lines or energy shifts or body changes. “I’ve learned, especially as I’ve gotten older, it’s so much more fun to let go,” she shared.
The Magnolia Network host added that, yes, her impulse to control has come in handy with being organized and successful—but that, she learned, isn’t what matters most. “At the end of the day, when I look back, I wanna remember the moments,” she said. “I wanna remember that I enjoyed them. Like, back in the day, I wouldn’t step forward unless everything was aligned and it was perfect... but what I learned along the way is that you just move forward. Then I feel like I could really do anything.”
With years of experience under her belt and the support of Chip, she’s not as afraid of the unexpected as she once was. “If I fail, well guess what? I’ll learn. I’ll be better on the next time,” she said. “So for me, it’s just, I love this idea of: We have to move forward. Set aside comparison. Set aside fear and anxiety—all of the things. Because those are real things, but if you start moving forward—I kind of always visualize it as falling off my back... that’s the power. That’s what gets you to the next place.”
It’s advice that seems simple, but takes many of us a lifetime to learn, which is why Joanna wrote a children’s book about it called The World Needs Who You Were Made To Be. In 2020, she shared a childhood photo and reflected on how far she’s come.
“The older I get, the more I realize how much time I spent believing the lie that who I was wasn’t good enough. I find myself fighting to get all of that time back,” she wrote. “I hope you find the courage to embrace all that you are—all of your quirks, all of your beauty, all of your brilliance—because the world needs YOU.”
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