Posts tagged ‘health concerns’
How to stop feeling old: Stop talking like you are.
My wife and I are boomers (ages 46 and 48 respectively), and we have lots of friends in mid-life. Where dinner party conversation used to revolve around kids, relationships, and news of the day, lately we’d started sounding like residents of an old-age home. Menopause here, colonoscopy there, prostate exam, stents, MRIs, precautionary tests.
For me, the tipping point came as four of us stood listening to a 50-year-old friend detail his heart surgery. In rapt attention was another friend who was six weeks removed from a hysterectomy. Another pal was literally having his head examined.
Sound anything like your group of friends? Well, my wife and I and another couple made a pact: Henceforth, we will concern each other only with major health concerns (heart bypass, hysterectomy). But for the everyday annoyances of middle age — varicose veins, hair loss and arthritis flareups – save your sob story for when your Botox injections go bad.
As my wife and I have aged, even though we’re very active and we eat right, our bodies have some new limitations. On the other hand, to dwell on our everyday concerns only makes us sound old. Is that how you want others to see you? More important, is that how you want to see yourself?
Jody Olson, Chapter Two Communications
Mature marketing expertise from one of America’s “oldest” authorities on boomers, retirement, aging, longevity, and inter-generational marketing.
Life is like a visit to the optometrist.
For most of us, life is like a visit to the optometrist: Every time we go, we see things differently. Every time we go, our vision has changed. Our prescription has changed. The style of our frames has changed. The way we see ourselves has changed. Every time we go, it seems like we need new glasses.
In many ways, that’s what the first half of life is all about: Change. And while constant change is exciting, it can also be unsettling and exhausting. Moreover, it is a daily, unending process.
The more we grow, the more we change. We question ourselves. We remake ourselves. We absorb criticism. We change our minds. We change our friends. We change our partners. We change jobs, careers, hairstyles, wardrobe, politics, sometimes even our names.
Why all the change? Well, we’re learning what we like. Trying things on and taking things off, until we see things clearly for ourselves. When we finally see clearly, we stop getting new glasses.
And here’s what you see.
You see the wild desires and unpredictable consequences of your 20s start to fade.
You see the iron-clad reason and rationality of your 30s become a little less sure-footed.
You see the good sense and judgment that begins in our 40s, start to take hold.
Most importantly, you see that no matter what glasses you wear, you see just fine and you look just fine. And you don’t need anyone to tell you so, because at long last, you can see for yourself.
Mike Baumayr, Chapter Two Communications
Mature marketing expertise from one of America’s “oldest” authorities on boomers, retirement, aging, longevity, and inter-generational marketing.
