When Fast Company sings the praises of slowing down in the workplace …. #creativity #productivity #leadership #efficiency #accuracy #balance
Category: Uncategorised
Super-Agers: Too Much Of A Good Thing?
Super-seniors. Awesome oldsters. Radical retirees.
Whatever you call them, the world is suddenly full of people performing remarkable feats in later life.
A 70-year-old American wins the Mongol Derby, the world’s longest horse race. A 72-year-old takes YouTube by storm in South Korea. An Englishwoman celebrates her 90th birthday by wing walking on an airplane in mid-flight.
As the author of a new book on the upsides of aging, I welcome this surge of ‘super-agers.’
But is there a downside?
Let’s start with the good news: aging is no longer what it used to be. Advances in nutrition, technology, sanitation and medical care, along with healthier lifestyles and rising incomes, are helping us live better for longer than ever before. Super-agers are the poster children of this longevity revolution.
By taking later life by the scruff of the neck in ways that journalists find hard to resist, they are also a welcome antidote to the cult of youth. Every media report of a kitesurfing eighty-something or an Instragram-conquering seventy-something delivers another blow to the canard that it’s all downhill from 40.
Yet therein lies the potential downside.
By heaping so much attention on the media-friendly outliers we run the risk of creating a new, unattainable gold standard for aging. Let’s be honest: not everyone can land a modelling contract in their seventies or run marathons in their eighties. We may not have the looks, talent, temperament, connections, money or health to do so.
Setting the bar too high for aging disheartens those unable to measure up. Studies suggest that over-exposure to super-agers can turn lesser mortals off sports altogether.
How do we avoid turning aging into a game of winners and losers? In a word: diversity.
By all means, let’s draw inspiration from those smashing it in later life. But let’s also hold up other, less headline-grabbing ways of aging well.
Thankfully, this is already happening. Every day, millions of people flood social media with videos, photographs and tales of life after 50 that will never trouble a news desk yet still have the power to inspire all of us to embrace our age and look forward to being older.
The other day, while scrolling through Instagram, I stumbled across a photo of a 70-year-old riding a horse. She wasn’t galloping across the Mongolian steppe towards a finish line, rival riders hot on her heels. Nor was she risking life and limb by jumping over fences and banks.
She was trotting along a deserted beach in Ireland, under a blood-orange sunset, looking radiantly happy.
And I thought: Yeah, if that’s what my life could be like in 20 years, then I’m all in.
Look Good, Not Young
Once you hit your mid thirties it’s hard not to feel pleased when someone says you look younger than your age.
Why? Because ageism and the cult of youth.
We’ve internalised the idea that ageing is a downward spiral, that looking good must mean looking young. The latter is especially true for women, but men feel the pressure, too.
One way to take down ageism is to get rid of ageist language.
So let’s stop using “looking younger” as a compliment. And the next time you feel inclined to say someone “looks great for their age,” try simply saying they “look great.”
Slow Inspiration
Just heard from the director that this sci-fi short film was inspired by my TED Talk in praise of slowness …
Learning, not churning
Why Slow Education could (and should) be coming soon to a school near you …
Books on Buses
“The doors are closing, the books are opening.”
Absolutely LOVE this idea. Free travel for anyone reading a book on a public bus.
Already a success in Romania …
New TED Talk already making ripples ….
Three days ago, after seeing my TED Talk on ageing and ageism, one member of the TED SUMMIT audience told me they’d immediately changed the age on their dating profile – adding back on the eight years they’d lopped off to seem younger. As the last line of my talk went: “Whatever age you are, own it – and then go out there and show the world what you can do!”
Let’s stop feeling ashamed (and lying) about how old we are. Instead, let’s all grow (b)older together ….
PS: Before you ask … I don’t yet know when my talk will go up online.
Slow Movement
What is the Slow Movement – and how can it change your life (for the better)?
Never Too Late …
C. S. Lewis hit the nail on the head when he wrote: “You are never too old to set a new goal, or to dream a new dream.”
This Korean woman is just one of many joyous examples of what life can be – at any age – if you embrace it with an open mind …
Find out more in my new book, BOLDER: MAKING THE MOST OF OUR LONGER LIVES
Slow Photography Prize
The Slow Moments Photography Competition is back! And I’ll be picking the overall winner for 2020.
Click HERE if you want to enter ….
Last year’s winning shot featured above.