I am celebrating a significant milestone this week — my 90th birthday. Might I use my space, this month, to share my thoughts?
Frankly, I’m just amazed. I had thought, having entered this world in 1934, that just reaching into the 21st century was a reasonable milestone. The traditional thinking, back then, was that we work until we’re 65 and hope that there will be some gifted years for us to enjoy the blessings of a reasonable retirement.
How could I possibly imagine that there would be at least an additional quarter of a century in store?
Honestly, I’m quite pleased with the extra years since I suffer from an insatiable hunger for knowledge and new experiences. When I reached normal retirement time, I was self-employed and was free to continue plying my trade for another 11 years. These were, perhaps, my more productive years. Two of my three books were published in 2002 and 2005 and I was able to pioneer an entire new concept within the project management genre: Project Portfolio Management.
While I was free to work as and where I wished, I was also free to explore the country. This was facilitated by ownership of a class A motorhome. On our first cross-country trip, to visit with young grandchildren in San Diego, we were immediately taken with the area and returned the next spring to buy a home in Bernardo Heights. But we maintained our residence in Upstate New York, where our other family lived, for a dozen years.
Our annual vacation was a cross-country trip between the two homes. The experiences and discoveries are still among my fondest memories. Driving around the country, in a comfortable RV, with a motorcycle on the back, visiting national parks, presidential libraries, civil war landmarks and following the Lewis & Clark Trail was an exhilarating experience.
Settling down in Rancho Bernardo, I soon found myself fully engaged in local activities. Serving on the boards of two HOAs and running a chamber music concert series at the RB library were both a community service as well as a life enrichment experience.
My writing for the Pomerado News (and now the Union-Tribune) commenced in 2017 and required me to get involved in the local political scene. I actually detest politics, but my desire for government agencies to run as efficiently as successful businesses has encouraged me to engage in critical reviews and commentary on local government.
Once again, these activities helped to enrich my life. Learning to write better and improve my vocabulary was essential. As was the need to meet new people and learn about local governmental operations.
It’s difficult to imagine that all of this activity is about a segment of my life that occurred in the “supplemental” time period that is referred to as the retirement years.
In some recent reading about aging, I came across various lists of attributes of successful aging. While each list had its set of theories, there was one characteristic that was common to all. This was “a rich social involvement.” Even my health insurer gives monetary rewards for reporting monthly “engagement with others.” I highly recommend engaging in regular challenging discussions as a healthy exercise. Dinner out with friends works well.
Personal growth, especially in acquiring new skills and knowledge, need not cease with age. In fact, it helps to maintain cognitive acuity. Online courses are available from the public library. San Diego Oasis, with a magnificent new facility in Rancho Bernardo, offers a vast menu of educational and personal development opportunities for those over 50. The public library and the internet can meet almost any need to acquire new knowledge. It’s food for the brain, and healthy for an extended life.
Nature sets a map of growth and decline for all living things. For the most part, the cycle cannot be denied. But we need not capitulate entirely to the force of nature. Our bodies will eventually tell us when to ease off. But there is no need to give in just because the calendar tells us that our time is up. Personal growth is the elixir for extending our productive senior years.
I have a personal fascination with the discipline of behavioral science. Among the giants in this field was Abraham Maslow. His landmark “Hierarchy of Needs” categorizes human needs in five steps. As each step is met or satisfied, a growing individual can move on to satisfy the next step on the ladder. These levels are defined as:
- Physiological Needs
- Safety Needs
- Love/Belonging Needs
- Esteem Needs
- Self-actualization Needs
As young adults, we would normally build our way through our primal needs, ing through a subsistence level into careers and activities that satisfy our higher needs. Hopefully, as we approach our senior years, we can open ourselves up to the life-enriching experiences of self-actualization. We are free to learn, to take more risks, to adventure, to ignore the burdens of generating income or profit — to be one’s self.
Growth need not be curtailed in our twilight years.
Sadly, my last climb of Iron Mountain was two years ago. But my tennis buddies still give me a challenging workout, my e-bike gets me to the coast on weekends, and my days are filled with research and writing activities.
I’m not into afternoon naps, yet. No need to surrender to the inevitable. It will come soon enough on its own. This week, though, I especially cherish the gift of these extended and fulfilling years.
A Rancho Bernardo resident, Levine is a retired project management consultant and the author of three books on the subject.
