Elderly woman with camera

The Advantages of Growing Older

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After all, I’m young and getting younger by the day! OK, so the years are adding up, but that doesn’t mean I can’t choose to be younger. I also work with older people all the time so I know I have a lot of exposure to that stage of life.  I know from this experience the advantages of growing older.

Everyone has conceptions of what it means to grow and be older.

These ideas are influenced by what we have been told, what we get from the media and what we have seen and experienced in our own lives. For some, growing older equates to being “OLD”- infirm, unable to hear, see, and think clearly…loss…alone.

Indeed any or all of these may happen, at least to some to degree, but growing older can be positive. There are welcome advantages to this stage of life, far beyond the senior discount!

In many cultures, older people are greatly respected and revered. In our culture? Not so much, but that doesn’t mean we have to roll over and count ourselves irrelevant.

Some advantages of growing older:

We “olders” have a great opportunity to teach, give perspective and pass on what we know and have learned over a lifetime. There are fewer obligations which means we have the time and the opportunity to be gentle and patient. We can be generous with our time, energy and wisdom toward the “youngers” – things many youngers get little of.

More time also allows getting involved in activities, learning, passions and causes that may have been limited previously.

How about being able to cultivate deeper, more meaningful relationships with a social circle and family? I know a woman who said she had so much fun with her husband on their honeymoon they decided to have two honeymoons every year…and they still do, many years later.

Growing older can bring welcome retirement from the work-a-day world. It could also mean freedom to continue to work, as a choice, exploring a new career and/or allowing an avocation to bloom.

When older, how do you plan to view life?

I have known some whose life perspective is a glass half empty and regrettably, many see it half empty and draining fast. Such are possible views of growing older.

Turning aging into a glass half full (and continuing to fill) is indeed a matter of perspective and a choice of how to approach it. How do YOU see it?

Growing OLDER (half empty)

Growing OLDer (draining)

GROWING older (continuing to fill)

There are changes that will come with age, just as there were before: infancy, toddlerhood, teens, young adult and so on. And yes, everything that grows changes and eventually does pass away. But everything that grows must also be planted and nurtured to become fruitful.

What seeds are you planting right now?

Will you purposefully plant new life-growing opportunities, tend them and bloom in the years to come?

You can be curious,

be surprised,

and GROW older.

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