LifePower

Aging as a New Frontier

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, a Harvard professor who wrote "The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, And Adventure in the 25 Years After 50," recently spoke to PBS host, Bill Moyers, about her thoughts on aging and the limitless opportunities for older adults. Lightfoot believes that the years after 50 are "perhaps the most transformative time in our lives."

You can view the video or access the transcript right here

 

Never Too Old to Compete

Calgary, Alberta recently became the latest city to host an Ironman Triathalon.  10 men and women over the age of 65 competed and all finished.  As more athletically inclined baby boomers turn age 65 the ranks of the seniors categories are increasing.

Margaret Hagerty, 85, competes in the Stanly County Family YMCA Strong Communities 8K road race on August 2, 2008 in Albemarle, North Carolina. Hagerty holds a record in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest woman in the world to have run a 26.2-mile marathon on all seven continents.

Buder, 77, a nun in Spokane, Wash., in 2005 became the first woman over 75 to complete an Ironman Triathlon, an event consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a marathon run, done successively.

In Canada 100-year old Jaring Timmerman, competing in the 100-104 age group for the first time since his 100th birthday Feb. 11, shattered world records in the 50-metre and 100-metre freestyle events on Saturday at Pan Am Pool at the 2009 Manitoba Masters Swimming Championship, as well as in the 50-metre back-stroke.

Older endurance competitors like Jones are indeed making their mark. Running USA, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based not-for-profit organization that tracks trends in distance running, found that the number of race finishers age 55 and over has grown from 336,000 in 1992 to 792,000 in 2007—a 136 percent increase. Even at a high-profile endurance event like the Boston Marathon, finishers age 60 and older have soared from just 65 participants in 1988 to 1,063 in 2008.

What does this tell us? “Age isn’t the limiting factor people think it is, especially in endurance,” says exercise scientist Williford. “We’ve tested 70- and 80-year-old athletes who have cardiovascular fitness levels similar to an average college student.”

The old attitude had more to do with society than with physiology. “Older adults always had this capacity,” says Williford, who is also a competitive triathlete at age 61. “They just weren’t trained or encouraged to exercise it.”

One Boy's Perspective

Here is a story that will ignite your emotions... a young boy, Isaac Hall, who was in the middle of chemotherapy... when his teacher gives him a new assignment... "tell us about a bad day you have had." 

In January Pastor Glenn Harless of Thanksgiving! Lutheran in Bellevue said, "He approached his teacher after thinking for a few minutes and handed her a blank piece of paper and said, 'I've never had a bad day.'"

Having been involved with the Make-A-Wish Foundation for more than 25 years I was humbled by this story.  Now you can read Isaac's story for yourself... it will feed your soul.

Excessively Happy in Banff

With all the life and economic ‘reality checks’ the world is experiencing, how could anyone say they are “excessively happy?”  Add to the mix—a major life-transition from community leader and business person to crew member in a town’s sanitation department… more commonly known as garbage collection…and, you might begin to wonder.

I was looking for directions in Banffa few weeks ago and spotted a man decked out in Tilley hat, dark glasses and bandana. Wearing shorts and runners he was empting garbage containers in a parking lot beside majestic Bow Falls.

I made a beeline for his garbage truck to ask for directions. He obliged, and thanking him—I asked how he was doing? Almost apologetically he said he was: “excessively happy” - and I could tell he really was!

 

‘Excessively happy’ was new and exciting language and I wanted to know what had led to his euphoric state of mind, and his apparent clear recognition of his state of well-being.

 

Almost immediately he took off his dark glasses and extended his arm through my open car window to shake hands as he introduced himself as ‘Bill’. He said he was retired. Here was my first clue:   I have learned that the ‘R’ word has as many definitions to it, as do the people who aspire to that transition. I was ready to learn more.

 

Bill and his wife Fern, both aged 52, had operated a retail store - one of Eastern Canada’s largest bulk food businesses. After a decade of ’retail theatre’ and working long hours, often seven days a week, with sixteen employees, Bill and Fern found their social life often got mixed into their business lives and visa versa. Perhaps they were suffering from burnout? Or maybe a combination of that, together with a common ‘second half of life’ epiphany that ‘choice’ is a real option and seeking change, adventure, meaning and renewed purpose is there for the taking.

Bill and Fern’s transition began with some serious planning. Over two years they started to simplify their lives and gave lots of stuff away. They completed what I call the Good Life Inventory… creating a plan that detailed: where they wanted to live, how to find the right work and what it looked like for them to be with the right people.

 

Having handed over their store, said their community good-byes and enjoyed a visit from the town’s mayor—they headed west in their Pontiac van to Banff where two of their kids live.

On arriving, Bill dropped by the Banff Parks employment office asking if they had any work for a retired guy ‘like him’. Meanwhile Fern found work at a retirement home and with their kid’s help they quickly integrated themselves into the Banff community.

Bill says he is a naturally happy, people kind of guy which was key to his retail success. He says he has always looked after people and tries to find at least one person a day to inspire. Couple those traits with the much reduced stress and responsibility of running a family retail business….and he is genuinely happy. 

 

Bill has gone from being surrounded by people, to working alone surrounded instead by world-famous pristine beauty that he helps to maintain each day. He’s more than a garbage man.

 

In the twenty-first century, a development stage of life is emerging as significant and distinct, capturing our interest, engaging our curiosity, and expanding our understanding of human potential and development. Demographers talk about this new chapter in life as characterized by people between fifty and seventy-five who are considered neither young nor old. This demographic is challenging cultural definitions of strength, maturity, power and sexiness.

 

Traditional norms, rules and rituals of our careers now seem less encompassing and restrictive as many men and women search for greater meaning in life.