Preparing Yourself For Aging With a Positive Mental Attitude

The thought of aging can be one that perturbs many people, overwhelms some, and sinks others. Yet, getting older every day is something we spend our whole lives doing. So, really, we should all be expert at it by the time we reach 50.

The fact is, though, many people are not expert, and allow the thought of aging to drag them down, mentally and physically, at an earlier age than may be necessary. Much of the reason for that lies in the way those people have thought about getting old in their earlier years. Not necessarily in their youth, as nobody in their teens and twenties can have the perception of age in perspective. Many of those same rock stars who treated old age (ie over 30) with irreverance in the 1960's are still out their rocking in their own 60's. In fact, some have turned out to be great examples of how to make the most of each personal decade as it dawns. On a recent American Idol, Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits and Lulu, of Swinging Sixties fame, were giving their coaching skills to contestants, looking larger than life, bright and cheerful, young at heart, and looking like they had decades more to come.

One of the reasons many do not approach old age in a more positive way is probably the association of getting old with retirement. The word "retire" has, over the last century, become associated with "stop". Doing the same job for 40 years and then "stopping" has left millions in the past in a state of limbo. Often people retiring did literally stop, and to a lesser extent, still do. The abrupt halt to a regular routine, workplace and social interaction had its victims: those who could not adapt to the sudden change, did nothing active, and died soon after retirement.

In recent decades, increased leisure time and less of a "jobs for life" working environment has equipped people better than before to the changes that retirement may bring. Millions have had to adapt to change suddenly in their 20's, 30's and 40's so they are well practised by the time they reach 50. The increase in early retirement has also prompted millions of people to focus on retirement possibilities perhaps as early as 40 to 45, or have seen older people around them welcoming the chance of freedom at 50 to get out there and do something new. Seeing people volunteer to retire is a positive influence on the aging image.

Positive Ways to Approach Aging

Given the experience and wisdom people have gathered over the earlier decades of their life, everybody has the potential to age not only gracefully, but in a fulfilling way whereby they make the most of life beyond retirement. Here are just a few suggestions:

1. Never consider retiring as the end. In fact, try not to believe in retirement at all; that is the approach I have taken and will continue to. I made a firm decision long ago to always be active. Retirement as you know it is just a junction in your life, and you choose which way to turn.

2. Take positive care of your health, as if you are going to be around forever. To look after your physical health means you are mentally positive about a healthy future.

3. Think of each, day, month and year as a new opportunity for you to learn something new, try something new. If you want to start your own business for the first time, do it; if you want to travel to distant lands with a totally different culture, do it.

4. Plan well ahead. If you are planning on developments many years ahead, your subconscious will be tuned in to your staying around a long time to bring them to fruition.

5. Imagine and enjoy the thought of being very old. Visualize yourself regularly as reaching 100 and beyond. I met a gentleman here in Palawan a few years ago who I thought was a young looking 65. He was 100 years old, and looked ready to go on many more years. He said he had always imagined living, and wanted to live, to a very old age.

6. Have a 'young at heart' approach to living. Feel free to mix with young people. before I left England a man in his 70's was featured in a national newspaper who used to go to a local disco every week. He loved it, danced a lot, and there was always a girl ready and willing to go over and dance with him. He was very popular and respected, and he was full of life.

 

There is so much you can do with your remaining years. By developing a positive mental attitude to age and its natural evolution, you can do more between 60 and 100 than you ever did between 20 and 60