While I am not close to retirement age, I have and currently do, work with many retirees and seniors. I will also say that retiring well and finding joy in later life have been on my mind since I was a young boy growing up in the Fingerlakes. I clearly remember my mother taking me to visit relatives in nursing homes in the 1970s. They were not happy visits. In fact, they scared the heck out of me. This is back when residents could still smoke inside the nursing homes. They were dark, crowded, and there would be a dense cloud of cigarette smoke in the entire building. I can still hear the crying and moaning echoing down the hallway. Not the best environment for an eight-year-old.
Those nursing home visits were one of the things that motivated me to be physically and intellectually strong throughout life. I have had it in my head that I will do everything I can to stay independent so as not to end up in a place like the ones I visited as a child. Sure, some things are out of a person’s control, but we can all aim to manage stress, exercise, socialize and eat well.
As I mentioned, I still work with seniors, and there are some things I have noticed that I would like to pass on. In this article, I will discuss the first two keys to maximizing happiness as a senior and will address them more in later articles. First, there is no single way to live your later years. Everyone is different, and what makes us happy is also different. Second, everyone needs to have a purpose. The key is to find it.
When people think of their later years in life, they often have some sort of scene in mind. It might be sitting in front of a cabin on a mountain lake with a line in the water, waiting for a bite from that massive bass you spotted from the dock. Other people might fantasize about sitting on a beach with their toes in the sand, sipping a cold drink with a little umbrella in it. Some people love their job and want to die at their desks. I say to each their own. Regardless of what you envision as the ideal way to spend your time, don’t worry about what someone else says should make you happy. Our time on this Earth is very limited, and people often find that what they think should make them happy and what actually makes them happy are not the same.
The other key point I want to discuss today is living with purpose. Regardless of financial means, health, physical abilities, or any other metric, everyone needs a purpose; otherwise, you are simply waiting to die. Life is short, so be inspired to make the most of it. I currently work with two clients in their seventies. Both are healthy, but they spend their time very differently. One travels the world and is in a different country every week or so. I freely admit that I could not keep up with him. He has an unbelievable energy and zest for life. He is extremely connected to his extended family and has many intellectual pursuits. He still works, and it is unlikely that he will ever completely retire. I have another client who has recently retired from his formal career but still is extremely involved with local non-profits, teaches classes to prison inmates, and is still very involved with scholarly research and editing. Both have found purpose and satisfaction, yet both pursue it differently. The key is to find reasons to wake up in the morning and take an active role in life rather than let it happen to you.
