Retire! Bah Hum Bug

Retire! Bah Hum Bug

You’re as young as you feel , saving the best for last or it isn’t over till I say it’s over might describe the individuals who continue to learn, achieve and grow well into retirement years.  It’s as if they’re just hitting their stride.  Age is but a number.

They have such drive and sense of purpose that it propels them to continue to learn and grow.  Now with the wisdom they’ve earned through the years they’re able to continue to make their mark. What’s interesting is that their achievements are from different venues; fashion, political, athletic, education, science, music and the arts. It’s a true testament that it’s not over until you say it is.

The achievements of the following individuals didn’t happen overnight but were an accumulation and extension of what they’ve already experienced.

“Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another” ~John Dewey

Take a look at just some of the well known individuals who made or continued to achieve and grow in their 70’s.

70 – Dr. William Mayo founds a medical clinic which will bear his name.

71 – Fashion icon Coco Chanel debuts the Chanel suit.

72 – Karl Wallenda, of the famous Flying Wallendas, walks a high wire between the Eden Rock and Fontianebleau hotels in Paris.

73 – Ronald Reagan is elected President of the United States.

74 – Ethel Andrus founds the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).

75 – Piano virtuoso Claudio Arrau stays busy ion his seventy-fifth year, performing a total of 110 concerts.

76 – Thomas Jefferson begins designing buildings and developing curricula for the University of Virginia.

77 – Astronaut (and Senator) John Glenn returns to space on the Space Shuttle Discovery mission.

78 – Grandma Moses begins her career as a serious painter.

79 – Giuseppe Verdi composed the opera Falstaff.

There are people all around that are still learning and growing well into their retirement years.  Take my grandpa for example.  He finally gave up dairy farming at the ripe old age of 75.  That’s hard work at any age.  However he didn’t retire, that wasn’t his nature.  He rented out his land to another farmer and took up raising heifers and peacocks.  He also had taken up woodworking in his later years and now that he had more time he began making even more and difficult pieces. No he wasn’t famous but he did set an example for his children and grandchildren to follow.  He finally passed on when he was 91 years old.

What does this tell me? That when you stay engaged in life, have a sense of meaning and purpose you are more likely to live longer and enjoy it more too.

What does it say to you?

What’s Your Calling?

What’s Your Calling? 

Many years ago I was having a conversation with my aunt who’s been a teacher for over 20 years. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and told her that I was leaning towards being a teacher but that my Dad advised me not to do it. He said there are three things you don’t want to get into; teaching, banking and insurance. They don’t pay very well. That’s when my aunt told me that you don’t get into teaching for the money. It’s more of a calling.

From time to time I’ve heard others talk about it’s their calling. What does that mean? To me it means they’re drawn to it, a pull towards it. A calling doesn’t appear to happen often but some people do feel that pull. It’s not that it doesn’t exist in everyone but that we may have tuned it out, aren’t listening to it or that we are aware of it but has put it on hold. Perhaps life has been so busy that we haven’t had the time to reflect on it, to bring it to the forefront of our consciousness. If we did, we’d start manifesting it. I feel a pull but it’s usually not to a profession but more an interest. A calling is not only something you’re drawn to but also something that would give you great joy and satisfaction.

Unfortunately many people don’t act on their calling when they’re deciding what they what to do in life. They make their decisions based on salary, work hours and conditions which end up overriding the calling. Sometimes it takes decades, usually in middle age, that the person finally rediscovers they’re inner calling and acts on it. This is sad because society lost the person for all those years. They contributed to the economic structure of society but the person probably would have been more fulfilled and society in the end better off if the person had followed their calling.

So what’s your calling? What are you drawn to or compelled to do or be?  That’s the question you need to answer for yourself and then act on it. Just do it!

Making the Shift from Smart to Wise

Making the Shift from Smart to Wise

At what point does one become wise? The truth is there really isn’t any one significant event or time when someone is considered wise.  It’s an accumulation of events, experiences, sadness and joy that ultimately earns the recipient the term wise.

“Tis not knowing much, but what is useful, that makes a wise person”.  ~ Thomas Fuller, MD

“A wise person hears one word and understands two”.  ~ Yiddish Proverb

Oh and one thing you’ll notice about people you consider to be wise, they exude humility.  It’s as if through all their experiences they’ve learned where they fit in the world and are grateful for all they’ve experienced. 

Here are some people who didn’t slow down as they were getting older but continued to pursue their ambitions well into their 60’s.

60 – Dr Hattie Alexander discovers the cure for bacterial meningitis.

61 – Sharpshooter Annie Oakley nails 98 of100 clay pigeons in an exhibition at a North Carolina gun club.

62 – Louis Pasteur inoculates his first patient against rabies.

63 – Eugenicist Francis Galton demonstrates that each person’s fingerprints are unique.  Criminals worldwide mourn.

64 – Betty Ford, wife of President Gerald R. Ford, opens her eponymously named clinic to treat substance abuse.

65 – Colonel Harland Sanders begins nationwide licensing for his special fried chicken recipe, which will come to be known as Kentucky Fried Chicken.

66 – Michelangelo completes his Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel.

67 – Engineer Joseph Baermann Strauss celebrates as his masterwork, the Golden Gate Bridge, is opened to traffic.

68 – Lillian Cater, mother of President Jimmy Carter, joins the Peace Corps and works for two years as a nurse in India.

69 – Mary Kaplan realizes her goal of running a marathon in every U.S. state – and finishing first in her age group in each race.

It proves age is but a number.  You have as much life left in you as what you put into it.

Middle Age – I Think Not

The fifties are more like coming into your own and hitting your stride.  By this time in your life wisdom takes over where knowledge and experience left off.  All the choices you’ve made have come to fruitation or starting to emerge.  It’s a grand time because if you don’t have the “I don’t care what anybody thinks” attitude already, you sure have it now.

Reasons that held you back in the previous years now vanish and you come into your own. Your true colors emerge.  But why wait until you’re in your fifties when you can work on that attitude change right now.

Take a look at the unique people who’ve made their mark at “middle age.”

50 – Charles Darwin publishes his pioneering work, On the Origin of Species.

51 – Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first woman justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

52 – Tchaikovsy composes a ballet suite called The Nutcracker.

      -   Ray Kroc, a milkshake machine salesman, starts a fast-food chain called McDonalds

      -   Leonardo da Vinci completes the Mona Lisa.

53 – Margaret Thatcher is elected as Great Britain’s first female Prime Minister.

      -  Walt Disney opens a theme park he calls Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

      -  Ernest Hemingway writes The Old Man and the Sea.

54 – Henry Heimlich makes public a choking-prevention maneuver that will eventually be named after him.

55 - Author Alex Haley publishes his epic masterwork, Roots.

56 – Gustave Eiffel completes the design for the Paris tower that will bear his name.

57 – George Washington is inaugurated as the first President of the United States, receiving all 69 electoral votes. He will stand as the only President unanimously elected.

      -  Annie Peck becomes the first person to reach the summit of Mount Huascaran in the Andes.

58 – W. H. Hoover develops an electric suction sweeper that is soon dubbed a vacuum cleaner.

59 – Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross

    - Madeleine Albright becomes the first women Secretary of State for the United States.

 

This just a reminder that it’s not over till it’s over.  Make the best use of the time you have here because when you hit 50 you may only be half way there.