My grandmother is not old. She might have a lot of years on her but when you talk to her you realize just how much you can do if you live life to the fullest. I was talking to her last weekend and she was planning on a long trail ride in the Black Canyon down in Gunnison National Park. She’s doing a bunch of pre-rides so that my cousins who don’t get out on horseback very often didn’t have problems with some of the horses. She wanted to make sure that the horses had been ridden enough so that these folks who don’t get out much would be able to handle it and I definitely got kind of a kick out of that.
Whenever I think about my grandmother I associate her with somebody who is young and vibrant and is just making the most out of life. I think a big part of that is that every time I talk to her on the phone, for my whole life, she’s always been on the go or doing something. She’s always been riding horses, working in her garden, on the go to the next thing, or planning her next big adventure. This has made her stay youthful and I think there’s a real lesson in that for everybody.
I hear people say things like, “I’ve been going so hard I just want to spend a week on the couch” or “I just want to do nothing” all the time. Maybe you’re dong the wrong things in your work life or I guess the ultimate takeaway is that finding the things that get you excited about in your day to day life, whether that is things at work or things that you do outside of work, are a big part of the key to staying youthful. You may not be able to change the passage of years but I think most people know somebody who is in their 70s, 80s or 90s and hasn’t quite seemed to realize it yet. They’re still going like they did when they were much younger and in a lot of cases they’re outpacing people half their age.
That’s the person I want to be when I get older; somebody who is excited about every day, who is still finding new challenges, and has found a way to be excited about the things that they do. So I think important parts of that are:
- Figuring out what makes you excited
- Making sure that you try new things so that you don’t get stuck in a rut
- Finally, part of it is just attitude, finding the silver lining in anything that you do, and either making it a game or figuring out how it ties into the bigger picture
Slogging through things just to mark the time isn’t going to do much for your quality of life and probably doesn’t do much for the quality of things that you’re doing. I’m curious what other people think.
Joy is when you have a new possibility Werner Erhard
Well said. Take it from an active and feisty retiree. I am busier in retirement than during my career (and my career was not a walk in the park – see my last blog for more on that). I had a wise old uncle who said, “There will be plenty of time to rest.” Little did I know how important that philosophy would be later in life.
“Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy cow, what a ride!!'” Source unknown