Anti Aging Reality: Will You Be an Obsolete 100 Watt Bulb?

I had a conversation with a retired engineer whose health problems were eating up a big chunk of his retirement income every month. He was doing everything possible to make ends meet such as using coupons, asking for senior discounts, and living a frugal lifestyle but he just couldn't make ends meet.

I said to him, "Have you thought about getting a part time job -- you have a lot of experience you could put to good use." His response was so angry you would have thought I had insulted his mother. "Look, Barbara," he sniffed, "I've worked all my life and I deserve my retirement."

Everybody who chooses to retire deserves their retirement. Many people get to age 65 and have done all they are able to do mentally and physically, but most people at retirement age have more life left in them than they realize. Maybe they don't want to work 40 hours every week, but they are too young and vital to vegetate, and they know it.

When a relatively healthy retiree defends the decision to stop being productive with the "I've worked all my life" declaration -- it's not accurate. If you are retired and not working, you cannot say "I've worked all my life" because your life is not yet over. You have yet to explore and exploit all of your potential that could benefit yourself and others.

For the record, I define "productive" as something you do that not only gives you pleasure but has value for others. Activities such as gardening, taking classes, and playing cards are fun, but they are not productive. Engaging in an activity that you enjoy be it paid or volunteer and is of value to others is productive. You don't have to work forty hours a week unless you really enjoy what you do.

My concern with traditional retirement for healthy individuals is that that we are made for work -- like it or not. Our tradition of retirement at age 65 is not ordained by God; it's a foolish but well meaning creation of the 1930s when people didn't live much longer than age sixty-five. A lot has changed since then. For example, the life span has increased by 30 years, yet people still retire at age 65 or sooner. That means retirees who are not productive will be in decline for a longer period of time. Instead of "living" they will be "existing."

Boomers get it, I think. They tell me they have no intention of living the same kind of retired lifestyle as their parents and grandparents. But will they accomplish their goal, or will the lure of traditional retirement entice them to become part of the traditional retired lifestyle?

Science Daily of October of 11, 2008 published an article, "Sixties Generation Is Heading for Conventional Old Age." (The link for the article is in the Links section of this newsletter.) The story is about retirement in the UK, but I believe it has universal application. Here's the gist of the story from one paragraph of the article:

Most boomers - 70 per cent - regard age as unimportant in terms of their personal identity and, almost without exception, they told the researchers that they felt younger than their actual age. Boomers regard themselves as being more like their children and younger people than like their parents and older generational groups and, say the researchers, "see ageing as something that requires managing but is not overly problematic.. .. while 69 per cent of people interviewed agreed that it was possible to plan for retirement, 71 per cent were themselves making either no plans or only limited ones."

The above is accurate. Typically, boomers say they identify more closely with younger people than the older people. But that perceived identity will quickly give way to traditional thinking and behavior unless there is a plan to avoid typical traditional retired culture. What is particularly important to note in the above paragraph is that 71 percent were making no plans for how they want to live in retirement. That means that instead of taking charge of their aging process and making choices that result in growth and productivity, they have chosen to just let life happen.

Many people spend their pre retirement years doing work that is unfulfilling and eagerly await retirement so they can be free of the daily grind. What they don't realize is that the "do nothing" lifestyle they eagerly look forward to is worse than doing work they hate. It is the traditional "living life as a pastime” lifestyle that contributes to early and rapid decline.

If you spend your pre retirement years in the wrong career all is not lost if you plan, at least by age 40-50 to take charge of your future. At a healthy age 65 it's not too late to go back to school, start a new business or new career. Post retirement is the time to live your dream. If for no other reason, you should plan to stay productive in light of the prevailing economic chaos that may not resolve any time soon. True, life may throw a monkey wrench in your plan, but it's far more exciting to have a dream that can come true rather than to reminiscence about what might have been as you pass time in a retirement community with other declining "could have beens."

Please don't allow yourself to become obsolete because you plan to retire. You are not a light bulb that has been programmed to burn just for 100 hours. You are not an automobile that has been engineered to run just 100,000 miles and then be relegated to the scrap heap. Your potential is enormous. I always think about Col. Harlan Sanders who began his Kentucky Friend Chicken empire at an age when his peers were languishing in retirement communities and nursing homes.

Regardless of what you have worked at for so many years, there is something more inside you that has potential and value. Please don't leave your brilliance untapped. Use it to give joy and purpose to your own life and for the benefit of others. The bonus payoff is that you will stay ageless as long as you live. Engaging in work that you enjoy is the ultimate anti-aging secret. I guarantee it. There isn't a wrinkle cream in the entire world that can come close to helping you stay young.