Retirement As You Want It

Passionate People Speak About Their Lives Over 50

I've been interviewing passionate people over age 50 on my TV show, called "Alivelihood: New Adventures As We Age, for the past 4 years. Here are a few capsule summaries of recent guests:

• Joan Ditzion was an original founder of Our Bodies, Ourselves, the groundbreaking book about women's reproductive health and sexuality. It has been published in many languages and last year it celebrated its 40th year with the publication of its 9th edition. She talks about the impact that "the book" has had on her life. "I've grown up with OBOS," she gleefully declares, from being a young wife, then mother, than woman going through menopause, to grandmothering. She is thrilled to have met many of the women around the world who are translating the book's mission to reflect the culture of diverse communities.

 

• Margaret Morganroth Gullette, author of Agewise: Fighting the New Ageism in America, 
  and several other books on ageism, started her book writing career when her 1st book was just about to be featured in the major media and she was on her way to volunteer in her community's "sister city" in Nicaragua. That adventure has blossomed into a decades' long involvement where she has spearheaded many positive changes for women who want to get an education.
  
  

 

•   Dave Flanagan is a retired officer in the Coast Guard, an occupation that fascinated him for decades. Not content to withdraw from life after his exciting years on the seas, he became entranced with the bamboo he saw during his stint in Panama. Interested in conserving land, rather than seeing the rainforest and wildlife being devastated by being overly cut, he decided to work with locals to preserve it. This led to his next career, creating artful bamboo fences.
  

To see short clips of all of my shows, go to YouTube. If you are stuck about creating a joyful life after 50, these people are glorious role models of "alivelihood." I also coach people who are motivated to find their "calling," but not doing it on their own. Contact me at Karma@LifeSpringCoaching.com or Comment below this post.

Cultivate Leadership Qualities

Have you thought about what defines a leader, someone who has a presence that draws others to see them as a role model, someone who is generative in passing on her/ his wisdom? Perhaps as you've gotten some decades under your belt, you unconsciously feel more wise, more a krone, and without deciding to do so, you recognize that people turn to you, listen more as you speak, ask your opinion.

In the keynote given at the Harvard Coaching Conference last week, Dr. Sanjiy Chopra talked about a leadership mnemonic. Here it is:

• Listening
• Empathy
• Attitude of courage
• Dreams big
• Effective
• Resilient
• Sense of purpose
• Humility and Humor
• Integrity
• People skills

Here are some quotes from leaders we can emulate:

Oliver Wendell Holmes - "It is in the province of knowledge to speak, and it is in the privilege of wisdom to listen."

Dr. Paul Farmer - "The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that's wrong with the world."

Margaret Mead - "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

What can you do to cultivate your leadership qualities as you enter your Third Age?

What Can Older People Do To Protect the Interests of Future Generations?

"The only way the U.S. is going to avoid an economic crisis (you mean we aren't there yet?) is if the oldsters take it upon themselves to arise and force change," wrote David Brooks in a recent article called "The Geezer's Crusade" in the NYTimes. They can demand changes in health care spending and retirement age that will have the effect of making more money available for the younger generations. With present spending ... lots more spent for dying people in old age than for young children, for example... geezers are squeezing the life out of the young, Brooks pronounces.

Brooks goes on to say that grandparents can be wonderfully generous to their family members in the private sphere, but in the public sphere, they're doing exactly the opposite. Do you agree with this premise, that the older generations need to organize around the "cause of nonselfishness?"

Marc Freedman, writing on the Huffington Post points out that this "generativity revolution" is well under way. The retirement age is increasing steadily, after years of decline. Whether it's by necessity or choice, many people are staying in the workforce longer, thus delaying their social security benefits. Nor are they competing with younger workers, Freedman points out; they are filling needs that the recovering economy requires, Freedman wrote. They have segued into "encore careers" in health, education, and the environment.

In research that Freedman participated in with MetLife and Civic Ventures, they found that 1/2 of Boomers age 44-70 intend to focus on causes "greater than themselves," especially those that benefit future generations. How's that for public generosity, Mr. Brooks?

Do you believe that boomers and older are taking away needed resources from the younger generation ... or do you see many examples of generosity and generativity among the older generation?

Eunice Kennedy Shriver Embraced Possibilities and Many Reaped the Benefits

I didn't know much about Eunice Kennedy Shriver's (JFK's sister) contributions until today when she died at age 88. For any one of us who believes that we must "retire," that is, withdraw from life at a certain age, Shriver's  history belies that. She did quite the opposite.

Inspired by her mentally challenged sister, Rosemary, to advocate for handicapped people, she created the Special Olympics. During that first year, there were 1000 athletes competing with less than 100 viewers; now 3,000,000+ Special Olympic athletes train in all 50 states and 170 countries. She continued to be an active proponent of services for people with special needs into her 80s.

Among many projects, she started the Community of Caring to reduce disabilities among children of teenagers.This expanded into 1200 schools by 2006.

In a CNN.comarticle by Emanuella Grinberg, she is quoted as having said in 2007, "People believe I spent my whole life interested in only one thing ... working to make the world a better place for people with intellectual disabilities...As important as it has been, it is not the whole story...My life is about being lucky as a child to be raised by parents ...who made me believe in possibilities."

When we imagine that it is possible to do whatever we feel passionately about, we are able to make a huge contribution. What do you feel passionate about? And what are you willing to do to put it into action? Please comment below.

Recording Your Story or That of a Loved One Creates History

When we get into our 60s and beyond, we think more about leaving a legacy. About generativity and how we can affect generations to come. One way we can do this is by telling our story. Or by interviewing an older relative to record her or his story.  

StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is "to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening." The project provides mobile vans that travel to cities all over the country to record stories. Each person who participates gets a CD of her story and it is archived at the Library of Congress, forming a huge oral history of Americans.

Encore.org suggests that as we tell our stories, it crystallizes our values. There's a "transformative power in telling and listening to stories."

Do you have a story to tell for your children and grandchildren? What about your elderly relatives whose memories and impressions of days gone by will be forgotten if you don't interview them?

Is It a Value for You to Create Ecosytems to Sustain Life on This Planet?

Have you considered what legacy you'd like to leave the world and future generations? World renowned ecological activist, Dr.Vandana Shiva, founded a movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living things. Her message is compelling: "How much life can we protect?" rather than how many species can we kill by pollution and global warming. She suggests we can make a choice: to nourish life or create more for the wealthy. Nourishing life forms doesn't necessarily make indivuals rich in economic terms. But, it makes them rich in biodiversity.

Dr. Shiva's goal is to create sustainable food systems so that all people on the globe can survive and thrive. Presently, 5 agribusinesses control the food of the world. Any one of us can become a detoxifying force to save the planet. "We are one earth," she says, "with inter-connections among all living things."

Is it a value for you to bring forth a world where we share resources and collaborate to do so? If you believe so, then you can investigate Dr Shiva's website to incorporate this urgent global need into your encore career.

Generativity Promotes Emotional Well-Being

The Life Planning Network hosted a meeting this spring, focusing on generativity and legacy led by members Sharon Sokoloff and Cyndi Jones.

Psychologist Erik Erikson, Sokoloff said, identified generativity in 1950 as a stage in development of adults ages 35-60. He described it as being on a continuum with stagnation! on the other end. Perhaps things have changed in the past half century...surely that's the case with longevity, so I believe that generativity is a life-long quality, extending way past age 60.

Does it make sense to say that the more generative we are, the more we embody movement, growth, learning, and wisdom? The more we do this, as opposed to stagnating, where we are stuck, where we fail to admit new ideas and skills, then we can leave legacies, albeit unintended ones.

John Kotre in Outliving the Self: How We Live On in Future Generations says that we can be generative in many ways: by raising a child, by stopping abuse, by writing a family history, by starting an organization. He says being generative is making a difference with your life, giving back, and taking care of the planet.