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Learning Never Ends

Allegro, an online Polish retailer, comes up with some very good ads starring older actors. Some are funny. Others are artful. This one’s a tear-jerker….

A heartwarming reminder that you’re never too old to learn something new.

Midlife Crisis? What Midlife Crisis?

It’s high time we ditched expressions like “senior moment,” “wrong side of 40” and “midlife crisis” that reinforce the myth that ageing is all about suffering, loss and decline.

As this article eloquently points out, midlife can be a pretty wonderful time for lots of reasons….

12 Règles pour Vieillir avec Audace

1. Continuez à apprendre et à expérimenter. L’adage selon lequel on ne peut pas apprendre de nouveaux tours à un vieux chien n’est pas vrai (même pour les chiens !). La nouveauté vous permet de rester motivé et de garder votre énergie.

2. Cultivez des relations solides.

3. Inspirez- vous de modèles. Pensez à Helen Mirren, à David Attenborough ou même à Michel Ange, qui fut nommé architecte de la basilique Saint-Pierre à un âge très avancé.

4. Gardez le cerveau et le corps en forme en faisant de l’exercice et en faisant attention à votre alimentation.

5. Suivez Marie Kondo: si quelque chose – un travail, une amitié, etc. – n’engendre plus de joie, laissez tomber. Rationalisez pour faire en sorte que chaque moment compte.

6. Trouvez un but qui donne un sens à votre vie et vous mette le feu au ventre.

7. Soyez honnête à propos de votre âge. Mentir donne aux chiffres un pouvoir qu’ils ne méritent pas – et renforce le mythe que qu’être plus jeune est toujours mieux. Prendre possession de son âge est la première étape pour en tirer le meilleur parti.

8. Restez flexible et ouvert au changement, à la croissance et à l’évolution. Comme le dit Lao Tseu: « Celui qui est doux et  faible va vers la vie. Celui qui est dur et raide va vers la mort. » Le doux et le souple prévaudront. 

9. Ignorez les marchands de malheur qui disent que le sexe, l’amour et la romance appartiennent aux jeunes : ce n’est pas le cas. Faites de la place pour les trois, quel que soit votre âge, si c’est ce que vous voulez. 

10. Si vous pensez que vieillir sera néfaste, ce sera néfaste. Soyez positif et concentrez-vous sur les avantages de l’âge : vous sentir plus à l’aise dans votre peau ; entretenir des relations plus profondes; plus de bonheur, davantage d’altruisme, de créativité, de connaissance, d’expérience.

11. Cultivez le sens de l’humour. Le rire améliore la santé et la longévité. Comme le disait George Bernard Shaw: «Vous n’arrêtez pas de rire quand vous vieillissez, vous vieillissez quand vous cessez de rire.”

12. Pensez à la mort. Ne vous attardez pas de façon morbide dessus, mais n’en ayez pas peur non plus. La conscience que le temps est fini donne à la vie une forme et un sens – et vous incite à tirer le meilleur parti ici et maintenant.

Time to Retire Retirement?

John Goodenough is a sign of the times. Two days ago, he won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on rechargeable batteries. He is 97 years old.

He’s also a victim of ageism.

Back in the 1980s, Goodenough was forced to leave his post at Oxford University after his 65th birthday. Why? Because the university has a mandatory retirement age.

Goodenough is now doing research on energy storage at the University of Texas, Austin. He thinks Oxford shot itself in the foot by showing him the door all those years ago.

It’s foolish to make people retire,” he says. “I’ve had 33 good years since I was forced to retire in England. I’m working every day.”

This should be a lesson to all of us. The world is changing, and working culture needs to change along with it.

The old model of swapping work for pensioned leisure in our sixties no longer makes sense. We’re living too long for that.

The answer is not to fill the world with Goodenoughs. He’s an outlier: few of us can hope to be at the top of our field at the age of 97.

But the time has come to make it easier for everyone to carry on doing meaningful work for longer. And a good place to start is by ending the practice of forcing us to retire before we’re good and ready….

Ending Ageism at Work

Finished at forty? Phooey. Many of us are just hitting our stride at 40. 

Maybe, after settling this lawsuit for age discrimination, Google will now think twice before writing people off based on how old they are.

Is Loneliness a Natural Part of Aging? Nope!

Aging sucks, right?

That’s certainly the conventional wisdom. In a world in thrall to youth, the message coming from all sides is that, after a certain point, each birthday makes you less attractive, less productive, less happy, less energetic, less creative, less healthy, less open-minded, less sexual – and more lonely.

But is that true? Is it really all downhill from 30 or 40?

Of course not. 

Look at Christine Lagarde running global financial institutions in her 60s. Or Sir David Attenboroughmaking amazing documentaries and spearheading the fight against climate change in his nineties. 

The truth is that many of the grim stereotypes about aging are just plain wrong. Including the one about later life being an automatic ticket to Planet Lonely.

Just look at the numbers. These days, the loneliest generation are the millennials, nearly a third of whom report always or often feeling lonely. That’s double the rate found among baby boomers.

Of course, many older people are lonely, especially towards the end of life. Losing loved ones can be terribly isolating. But not everyone’s later years are blighted by loneliness, not by a long shot. 

Across much of the world, levels of happiness and life satisfaction are highest among the over-55s. One reason for that: we tend to forge stronger relationships as we age. 

“Older adults typically report better marriages, more supportive friendships, less conflict with children and siblings and closer ties with members of their social networks than younger adults,” says Karen Fingerman, a professor of human development and family sciences at the University of Texas, Austin.

In other words, loneliness is not a natural part of aging. More often it’s a function of modern life: looser families, consumerism, income inequality, working culture, housing, technology. That’s why loneliness is a scourge in every generation.

The good news is there are things we can all do  – whatever age we are – to avoid falling into the Lonely Trap.

Spend more time in sociable places, in the real world or online. Join a club dedicated to your favorite hobby. Offer to teach someone something or to help them with a problem. Be upbeat and curious about others. Mix with other generations, both younger and older.

Aging does not suck. With the right attitude, and a little luck, it can actually be pretty wonderful. 

And later life can be the opposite of lonely.