Over 65? Re-Tire. Put The Tires Back On
"Best-before-date" for those crossing midlife is out of date – join the life-embracers and un-retirees
Hello out there - in a rushed world,
Here comes your weekly permission to Un-rush and Stress Less.
Timeless insights and impulses on how the power of slow helps you grow - in a rushing world crushing your life
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IMPULSE
"Best-before-date" for those crossing midlife is out of date
Join the life-embracers and un-retirees: Re-Tire. Put The Tires Back On
Do we stop working at a certain age due to regulations and laws, which have not yet been adapted to the 21st century?
The conventional wisdom dictates that individuals must retire and resign upon reaching a predetermined age threshold, irrespective of their circumstances or the workplace's attitude towards this. Life expectancies have increased, and health systems have improved. Young people start their professional working life later than previous generations, due to university years, gap years, and spending a study or work year abroad. Respectively, the "rules" for retirement need to be adapted.
Why not pay more attention to the knowledge, experience, willingness, and commitment of the "mature generation" and integrate them into our organizational structures?
Rigid Rules Versus Useful Skills
When I had a conversation with the owner of a medium-sized company about his workforce and people in "retirement"-age, I was positively surprised by his attitude.
He told me about an employee who started working at age 15, then changed work to join his company and stayed there until he was supposed to retire at the end of 50. He worked almost 45 years, and the rule says to retire after that.
Fast-forward 15 years, and he is still working at that very company. Just because he feels like doing it and because he is good at what he does. The owner considers him a valuable asset to the company, as he has accumulated an enormous knowledge over decades that would be a shame to lose.
Wouldn’t it be much more progressive to combine these skills and wisdom with the younger generation's spirit of pioneering, their desire to try new things, and their skills in modern technology?
Combining Experience And Curiosity – To Create Something New
The ideal recipe for companies, institutions, or projects would be that we learn to combine wisdom and experience with a curiosity for new things, a beginner’s attitude, and a willingness to develop and grow.
"Experience is making a comeback again. Because at a time when corporate management is in the hands of younger generations, organizations are finally becoming aware of values such as humility, emotional intelligence, and wisdom that go hand in hand with age.”
“And when digital skills may only have an expiration date from the latest fads or gadgets, human skills that employees have mid-career - such as good judgment, expertise, or the ability to collaborate and coach - never expire.” That's how Chip Conley describes it, author of the book "Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder".
"Best-Before-Date" Has Expired
In another conversation, a friend mentioned how his father was forced to retire at the age of 60 from his work at a public office, where he successfully built up and managed a department over decades. Since he still enjoys his work a lot, and still feels young, while also being very popular with his colleagues, he offered to work more years, even for less money or fewer workdays.
Nope. The sell-by date has passed, and the law says he can no longer work, so he had to pack up and leave. Seriously?!
Un-Retirement
When is the ideal age to retire?
NEVER.
Let’s briefly forget about rules and laws and look at common-sense and human well-being.
Harvard University economists coined the term "un-retirement" to describe the number of people who retire, then find out that they don't like it, and they turn around and go back to work. Between 25 and 40 percent of retirees re-enter the labor market.
The reason why the un-retired people want to go back to work is because they feel they have a purpose, they wish to continue to use the brain, and they enjoy social exchange and commitment.
Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin interviewed people between the ages of 70 and 100 and asked them what contributes to life satisfaction for them. Each one of them was still working. Some have changed their work pace due to age-related slowdowns, but on the partial days they work, they achieve more than most of their younger colleagues.
Multi-Generation Teams
It has been discovered that teams with multiple generations and long-standing team members tend to be more productive. Older team members increase the productivity of their colleagues, and such teams usually outperform those of the same generation.
Ultimately, the goal should be that everyone in an organization or group feels included, welcomed, valued, and respected, which means nothing else than paying attention and thereby promoting fruitful cooperation.
The American filmmaker and theater director Frederick Wiseman finished in 2020 another film - with 91.
A few years ago, he described: "As for my age, I am completely ignorant and do not pay attention to what I find extremely useful. Of course, occasionally, I allow myself to become aware of my age, but it's not something I think about. I like to work. I work very hard."
Un-retiredness and not tiredness is the motto of many “aged” people who love to keep being busy, useful, helpful, needed, and challenged through work and other projects.
You are over 65? Or at some point in the future, you will be. Re-tire. Put the tires back on. Why not?
INSIGHTS
Curated stories on the topic of slowing down and stressing less, designed to open up new ways of looking at why you should give yourself permission to un-rush.
Perspective.
Your Irrelevance In The Grand Scheme Of Things.
Take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Sometimes you have to zoom out a bit, to realize the insignificance of the things you make a big fuss about.
Cosmic insignificance therapy.
Oliver Burkeman writes in his book Four Thousand Weeks about the Cosmic insignificance therapy, which is an invitation to face the truth about your irrelevance in the grand scheme of things. And to embrace it, to whatever extent you can. He writes: Because when things all seem too much, what better solace than a reminder that they are indistinguishable from nothing at all? The anxieties that clutter the average life—relationship troubles, status rivalries, money worries—shrink instantly down to irrelevance. To remember how little you matter, on a cosmic timescale, can feel like putting down a heavy burden that most of us didn’t realize we were carrying in the first place.
Oliver Burkeman refers to the British philosopher Bryan Magee who looks at human civilization as being about six thousand years around, which we consider as a staggeringly long time. But you can change your perspective and look at it differently. In every generation, even back when life expectancy was much shorter than it is today, there were always at least a few people who lived to the age of one hundred (or 5,200 weeks). And when each of those people was born, there must have been a few other people alive at the time who had already reached the age of one hundred themselves. So, it’s possible to visualize a chain of centenarian lifespans stretching all the way back through history with no spaces in between them: specific people who really lived, and each of whom we could name if only the historical record were good enough.
From this perspective, human history hasn’t unfolded glacially but in the blink of an eye. And it follows, of course, that your own life will have been a minuscule little flicker of near-nothingness in the scheme of things: the merest pinpoint, with two incomprehensibly vast tracts of time, the past and future of the cosmos as a whole, stretching off into the distance on either side. Or, as Oliver Burkeman calls it: You might think of it as “cosmic insignificance therapy”.
Inspiration.
Take It From Martha Stewart How To Not Slow Down With 82
Watching Martha Stewart in a 2-hours long educational video (from Masterclass.com) on how to turn ideas into businesses and how to master a busy work-life. It revealed some inspirational input for staying energetic, curious and connected, no matter how old you are.
Live with Nature
Living in the countryside on a farm, including a little forest, provides her with a soothing calmness, a well-needed contact with nature and tons of tasks.
Balancing slow and busy life
While being in the mornings and evenings on the farm, she spends most working hours in NYC in her office(s). Diving into the stimulation and excitement of a big city, she exposes herself to lots of interaction and exchange with various staff members or clients.
Curiosity and Learning
Both the farm and her businesses inspire her to learn something new every day.
“People are intimidated by learning and trying – but once you do it, it makes a huge difference in the way you live.”
Keep Evolving
An essential part of business is that you have to change, evolve, adapt, and adopt. Innovate and evolve to stay relevant.
New Tech
It is important to embrace new technology to find new audiences and to try them out and learn what sticks and what not.
Different Angles
Get a telescope, a microscope, and a wide-angle lens through which you observe your life and the world.
Connecting and Talking
In a world where communication is largely non-verbal, it is imperative to engage in face-to-face communication with others, engage in verbal communication, and personal interaction. This is because it demonstrates a human touch and a genuine concern for others.
This might be my favorite article yet, Claudia. It makes me dream of creating partnerships with much younger people so lived wisdom and modern technology combine to create an un-rushed world :)
Thanks for checking confirming what I’ve been feeling. As long as my client’s keep asking for my services I’ll keep providing them. There are too many benefits not to.