so I’m here to share with you the secret
to successful aging and it’s not kale or
Botox or even pseudo ku you don’t have
to buy it be born with it or borrow your
life savings to get it
photo I know I mean I’m old but I’m not
that old but in the last decade I have
been immersed in the senior living
industry I have worked with seniors
interviewed them observe them done
research on them and what I’ve learned
is that we are in the midst of an aging
revolution there’s an adage in my
industry that the longer you live the
longer you live and actually that is
true so today if you’re 65 you can
expect to live to 84 and if you’re 84
you can expect to make it to 92 and if
you make it to 92 you can tack on a few
years what else is new about this
industry first of all there are more of
us Aging in the United States than ever
before in the history of our country so
here’s a chart of the u.s. live birth
and it shows that today there are 10,000
people every day turning 75 and that’s
gonna continue for a couple years
no it’s gonna continue for the next 18
years 10,000 people a day turning 75 for
18 years with some people call a silver
tsunami and what are these thousands of
older people doing they’re benefiting
from better health care so today a new
knee or a new hip is par for the course
it’s not a life-threatening surgery
people are accessing better medicine and
the other thing that’s different is
those pesky working women so 60 years
ago you had adult women who typically
were right around the corner
their parents but now they’re in the
workforce they are getting married later
having children later they are moving
for their jobs relocating they are the
true Sandwich Generation and considering
their lifestyle it’s not a bad thing
that they’re living farther away and
what’s the biggest change in this
revolution it’s the senior citizens the
seventy year olds I’ll share with you
some 70 year olds I know Paul McCartney
Aretha Franklin Mick Jagger seventy year
old and still rocking stadiums as TEDx
says living life on their own terms but
even if you’re 70 year old is not
rocking stadiums they’re not rocking
chairs they are traveling more
exercising more dining out this
generation wants and expects more from
the last third of their life than any
other generation so I have a question
why don’t we all approach aging with
this kind of enthusiasm why do birthday
cards starting at age 40 turn doom and
gloom don’t we know it’s better than
they alternative I think it’s easy to
blame the reason for this on society’s
obsession with youth but I think it
comes down to two things one is fear
fear of aging and death as one of my
favorite writers Atul Gawande says we
blind ourselves to the opportunity to
change aging for the better the second
reason we don’t look forward except
there’s no roadmap for this
nobody expected to
live this long and be this vital now I’m
no Pollyanna I know the change that
aging brings can be difficult you have
aches and pains and places you didn’t
even know you had being older is seen
and experienced by many as an advent of
loss loss of physical vitality friends
energy and sometimes I let a loss of a
sense of purpose so what do we do about
this we stick our heads in the sand
otherwise smart people who have saved to
buy a house educate their children take
a vacation deny the fact of Aging and
the changes ahead they don’t think about
it
just take a look at the way we live
today in the u.s. 50 percent of people
over 85 live alone they’ve mostly
stopped driving at night they don’t
socialize anymore and remember those
adult children their far-flung and maybe
that’s a good thing people insist that
living alone means independence even as
the New York Times declares there is an
epidemic of loneliness among older
adults and why does loneliness matter in
addition to the reason you would expect
researchers at MIT in the University of
Chicago last year came out with a
research study that connects scientific
evidence to loneliness and a loss of
physical and cognitive decline even
Forbes magazine recognizes loneliness as
a bigger health risk than obesity or
smoking and why are we lonely we’ve
literally stopped speaking
statistically adults over
seventy-five only spent eight percent of
their time communicating a 50 percent
drop since when they’re 65 and no in
answer to your question
texting does not count just because God
gave you opposable thumbs does not mean
it’s a replacement for real conversation
so so what do we do about this
I looked into three pieces of research
the first piece came out last year and
it was done by Indiana and Harvard
University and they took a look at eight
thousand older adults some of whom
volunteered outside the community and
some of whom didn’t and they found that
overwhelmingly those people that
volunteered were healthier than the
people who didn’t they had better test
results they did mammograms they did
took care of themselves and most
strikingly volunteers had 38 percent
fewer nights in the hospital that non
volunteers these are older adults less
time in the hospital stepping back and
looking globally anthropologist Dan
Buettner took a look at five areas
around the globe where the longest
living people were clustered he called
them Blue Zones so Japan Greece Italy
Costa Rica and California all have
clusters of people who lived a long time
and he looked into what factors in each
of these cultures are the same what can
we learn from this and in addition to a
healthy diet he identified a number of
key factors these people had moderate
exercise they understood how to shed
stress there was a focus on the family
and they had a sense of purpose what the
Japanese call a key guy I loved this
concept of a key guy which is loosely
translated as a reason to get up in the
morning
and I looked a little closer at this now
the concept has been around for
thousands of years and it derives from
two japanese terms or kuru meaning life
and kind meaning what one hopes for and
what I love about this idea is it
doesn’t talk about our current state of
happiness but rather our ability to look
forward now when you’re younger and
you’re raising your family and you’re
working in your career your purpose is
clear but when your family has grown and
your work career is over it doesn’t mean
your life is over
just that base just that sense of
purpose you now have the chance to find
a new purpose and you can choose your a
key guy by answering four questions what
are you passionate about what does the
world need what are you good at and what
can you be paid for or if you’re retired
what is your vocation the intersection
of these is you’re a key guy the last
piece of research is from a small
nondescript School in Massachusetts that
you may or may not have heard of they
did a 75 year study of a lifespan of a
cohort of graduates they studied them
for 75 years they looked at mayoral
success career status diet exercise and
they wanted to find the secret to what
makes a successful aging adult and what
they came out with shockingly for this
institution they boiled the whole study
down to one sentence good relationships
keep us happier and healthier period so
what’s the secret to successful aging
three things don’t be an ostrich you’re
smarter than that recognize that you are
ageing and celebrate your age where you
are understand you are on the right side
of the grass to defy expectations find
that next purpose find the reason to get
up in the morning whether it’s like
Claire doing skydiving for your 80th
birthday or coming up with a community
garden a book group find out what that
purpose is
the world is hungry for your gifts your
talents your time grow friendships
relationships matter get some get out of
the house I know for many of you your
friends and family may have passed away
but there’s a lot of people in the world
find people connect with them go out and
connect with people in the outside world
or in a case of one 94 year old man his
wife died and he decided to build a
community pool in his backyard now he
has kids adults coming to his house all
day long and at ninety four who’s
worried about liability look forward
it’s that simple you are here you have
more gifts to give you have more friends
to meet and as you flourish so will the
world
you
to successful aging and it’s not kale or
Botox or even pseudo ku you don’t have
to buy it be born with it or borrow your
life savings to get it
photo I know I mean I’m old but I’m not
that old but in the last decade I have
been immersed in the senior living
industry I have worked with seniors
interviewed them observe them done
research on them and what I’ve learned
is that we are in the midst of an aging
revolution there’s an adage in my
industry that the longer you live the
longer you live and actually that is
true so today if you’re 65 you can
expect to live to 84 and if you’re 84
you can expect to make it to 92 and if
you make it to 92 you can tack on a few
years what else is new about this
industry first of all there are more of
us Aging in the United States than ever
before in the history of our country so
here’s a chart of the u.s. live birth
and it shows that today there are 10,000
people every day turning 75 and that’s
gonna continue for a couple years
no it’s gonna continue for the next 18
years 10,000 people a day turning 75 for
18 years with some people call a silver
tsunami and what are these thousands of
older people doing they’re benefiting
from better health care so today a new
knee or a new hip is par for the course
it’s not a life-threatening surgery
people are accessing better medicine and
the other thing that’s different is
those pesky working women so 60 years
ago you had adult women who typically
were right around the corner
their parents but now they’re in the
workforce they are getting married later
having children later they are moving
for their jobs relocating they are the
true Sandwich Generation and considering
their lifestyle it’s not a bad thing
that they’re living farther away and
what’s the biggest change in this
revolution it’s the senior citizens the
seventy year olds I’ll share with you
some 70 year olds I know Paul McCartney
Aretha Franklin Mick Jagger seventy year
old and still rocking stadiums as TEDx
says living life on their own terms but
even if you’re 70 year old is not
rocking stadiums they’re not rocking
chairs they are traveling more
exercising more dining out this
generation wants and expects more from
the last third of their life than any
other generation so I have a question
why don’t we all approach aging with
this kind of enthusiasm why do birthday
cards starting at age 40 turn doom and
gloom don’t we know it’s better than
they alternative I think it’s easy to
blame the reason for this on society’s
obsession with youth but I think it
comes down to two things one is fear
fear of aging and death as one of my
favorite writers Atul Gawande says we
blind ourselves to the opportunity to
change aging for the better the second
reason we don’t look forward except
there’s no roadmap for this
nobody expected to
live this long and be this vital now I’m
no Pollyanna I know the change that
aging brings can be difficult you have
aches and pains and places you didn’t
even know you had being older is seen
and experienced by many as an advent of
loss loss of physical vitality friends
energy and sometimes I let a loss of a
sense of purpose so what do we do about
this we stick our heads in the sand
otherwise smart people who have saved to
buy a house educate their children take
a vacation deny the fact of Aging and
the changes ahead they don’t think about
it
just take a look at the way we live
today in the u.s. 50 percent of people
over 85 live alone they’ve mostly
stopped driving at night they don’t
socialize anymore and remember those
adult children their far-flung and maybe
that’s a good thing people insist that
living alone means independence even as
the New York Times declares there is an
epidemic of loneliness among older
adults and why does loneliness matter in
addition to the reason you would expect
researchers at MIT in the University of
Chicago last year came out with a
research study that connects scientific
evidence to loneliness and a loss of
physical and cognitive decline even
Forbes magazine recognizes loneliness as
a bigger health risk than obesity or
smoking and why are we lonely we’ve
literally stopped speaking
statistically adults over
seventy-five only spent eight percent of
their time communicating a 50 percent
drop since when they’re 65 and no in
answer to your question
texting does not count just because God
gave you opposable thumbs does not mean
it’s a replacement for real conversation
so so what do we do about this
I looked into three pieces of research
the first piece came out last year and
it was done by Indiana and Harvard
University and they took a look at eight
thousand older adults some of whom
volunteered outside the community and
some of whom didn’t and they found that
overwhelmingly those people that
volunteered were healthier than the
people who didn’t they had better test
results they did mammograms they did
took care of themselves and most
strikingly volunteers had 38 percent
fewer nights in the hospital that non
volunteers these are older adults less
time in the hospital stepping back and
looking globally anthropologist Dan
Buettner took a look at five areas
around the globe where the longest
living people were clustered he called
them Blue Zones so Japan Greece Italy
Costa Rica and California all have
clusters of people who lived a long time
and he looked into what factors in each
of these cultures are the same what can
we learn from this and in addition to a
healthy diet he identified a number of
key factors these people had moderate
exercise they understood how to shed
stress there was a focus on the family
and they had a sense of purpose what the
Japanese call a key guy I loved this
concept of a key guy which is loosely
translated as a reason to get up in the
morning
and I looked a little closer at this now
the concept has been around for
thousands of years and it derives from
two japanese terms or kuru meaning life
and kind meaning what one hopes for and
what I love about this idea is it
doesn’t talk about our current state of
happiness but rather our ability to look
forward now when you’re younger and
you’re raising your family and you’re
working in your career your purpose is
clear but when your family has grown and
your work career is over it doesn’t mean
your life is over
just that base just that sense of
purpose you now have the chance to find
a new purpose and you can choose your a
key guy by answering four questions what
are you passionate about what does the
world need what are you good at and what
can you be paid for or if you’re retired
what is your vocation the intersection
of these is you’re a key guy the last
piece of research is from a small
nondescript School in Massachusetts that
you may or may not have heard of they
did a 75 year study of a lifespan of a
cohort of graduates they studied them
for 75 years they looked at mayoral
success career status diet exercise and
they wanted to find the secret to what
makes a successful aging adult and what
they came out with shockingly for this
institution they boiled the whole study
down to one sentence good relationships
keep us happier and healthier period so
what’s the secret to successful aging
three things don’t be an ostrich you’re
smarter than that recognize that you are
ageing and celebrate your age where you
are understand you are on the right side
of the grass to defy expectations find
that next purpose find the reason to get
up in the morning whether it’s like
Claire doing skydiving for your 80th
birthday or coming up with a community
garden a book group find out what that
purpose is
the world is hungry for your gifts your
talents your time grow friendships
relationships matter get some get out of
the house I know for many of you your
friends and family may have passed away
but there’s a lot of people in the world
find people connect with them go out and
connect with people in the outside world
or in a case of one 94 year old man his
wife died and he decided to build a
community pool in his backyard now he
has kids adults coming to his house all
day long and at ninety four who’s
worried about liability look forward
it’s that simple you are here you have
more gifts to give you have more friends
to meet and as you flourish so will the
world
you
Please follow and like us: