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"Never think oldish thoughts," stated James A. Farley. "It's oldish thoughts that make a person old." Indeed, thinking young can help you to stay busily and happily involved in your so-called retirement years. Being productive well into your later years will enhance your self-esteem plus give you intellectual stimulation and social interaction. It is also a way to enrich the lives of others while enriching your own life at the same time.Here are examples of several elderly people who kept active in their "retirement" years.
- Albert Ellis developed what is now called rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) in the mid-1950s. In 2001, at the age of 87, Ellis was still lecturing, writing, and seeing 70 or more clients per week, applying REBT to help them get over behavioral and emotional problems by replacing irrational thoughts with rational ones.
- At 94 Bertrand Russell was actively promoting international world peace.
- At 90 Picasso was known for his artistic production, still creating stunning drawings and engravings.
- Luella Tyra was 92 in 1984, when she competed in five categories at the United States Swimming Nationals in Mission Viejo, California.
- Lloyd Lambert, at 87, was an active skier and operating a seventy-plus Ski Club which had 3,286 members including a ninety-seven-year-old.
Maggie Kuhn in her 80s was still active in promoting the goals of the Grey Panthers, a seniors group which she helped found when she was 65. - At 93, George Bernard Shaw wrote Farfetched Fables.
- Buckminster Fuller in his 80s was actively promoting his vision for a new world.
- Writer, actor, director, and producer, George Abbott had his first hit (simply called Broadway) on Broadway when he was 39. At 75, he produced A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. When he turned 100, Abbott brought Broadway back to Broadway.
These people appear to be somewhat remarkable, and in a way they are. Nevertheless, they are not unusual. Hundreds of thousands of people in their seventies, eighties, and nineties have an incredible zest for life and show great vigor, enthusiasm, and physical ability in living in their retirement years. To these individuals, being over the hill in their retirement years means picking up speed.Note: This article is adapted from the retirement books How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free and The Joy of Not Working by Ernie J. Zelinski.Also see:
PARADISE apparently isn't in the United States, at least for people planning to retire. In fact, almost 500,000 retired Americans live outside the United States, in places like Mexico, Thailand, Costa Rica, Panama, and Portugal. Fortune magazine in a recent issue says it has found "five idyllic places — from Patagonia to Phuket — where you can still live like a king on what you've saved." You can dream on in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Boquete, Panama; Merida, Mexico; and Phuket, Thailand. What's more, not so long ago US magazine Modern Maturity [now AARP The Magazine] sent teams of researchers out in search of exotic locales around the globe to determine the absolute best places to retire — a home away from home or as a retirement haven for North Americans. Whether retirement is a distant dream, just around the corner, or if you are already retired, give some consideration in your retirement plan to living and traveling in a country other than where you are today. "The world is a book," declared Saint Augustine, "and those who do not travel, read only a page."
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We have to be at least a little skeptical of some of the information about retirement that the media and researchers throw our way. There is a lot of contradictory information as to whether retirement is generally a positive or negative experience. Adopting either side of the argument can affect how happy each of us is when we retire.Some researchers have come to the conclusion that retirees experience less life satisfaction than working people. Other researchers have found that young retirees are less happy compared to similarly aged people still in the workplace. Still other researchers have concluded that retirement contributes to depression, and even suicide in the extreme cases.
According to economist Kerwin Kofi Charles of the University of Michigan, there is truth to these research findings. The presentation of the facts, however, is misleading. It's a case of which came first — the chicken or the egg? In other words, do depressed people contribute disproportionately to the number of the retired or does retirement contribute disproportionately to the numbers of depressed people?
Kerwin Kofi Charles used data from three extensive federal studies of older Americans. He confirmed the conventional wisdom that "the association between retirement and well-being is negative." Put another way, retired people as a group are more depressed than working people.
Yet, surprisingly, Kerwin Kofi Charles found that retirement doesn't add to the number of depressed people. Instead, it's the other way around. Depressed people or those who recently suffered serious emotional upheavals are more likely to retire than people with more positive dispositions. Thus, people who already have the blues disproportionately increase the ranks of retirees.
There is one more interesting aspect to the research conducted by Kerwin Kofi Charles. When he tried to account for the relationship between retirement and happiness amongst well-balanced individuals, there was nothing to worry about. "Retirement appears to actually improve well-being," he wrote in his study.
People all too often fear retirement because they focus on what they are giving up instead of what they are gaining. Instead of seeing retirement as something to be avoided at all costs, they should look at it as a phase of life that can be filled with joy, fun, challenge, excitement, and satisfaction.
A more positive view of retirement can result in a much more rewarding than work. Retirees can live the lifestyle they want to live instead of the one they had to live while employed. Active retirees find many interesting things to do, and have more time to do them. Here are seven retirement quotes and retirement sayings relating to how much enjoyment people are finding in retirement.
In short, leaving behind the demands of a job allows for a more balanced life involving a broader range of interests, activities, routines, and relationships. Millions of well-balanced retirees are enjoying retirement life for all its worth. Indeed, some of these retirees are so busy that they don't know how they ever had time for work. Not only should this convince you that retirement can be a positive experience, this should give you the motivation to find a hundred or two hundred activities that will add to add to your retirement life.
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Inspirational Retirement Quotes to Help You with Your Retirement Planning
Fortune magazine in a recent issue says it has found "five idyllic places — from Patagonia to Phuket — where you can still live like a king on what you've saved." You can dream on in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Boquete, Panama; Merida, Mexico; and Phuket, Thailand.What's more, not so long ago US magazine Modern Maturity [now AARP The Magazine] sent teams of researchers out in search of exotic locales around the globe to determine the absolute best places to retire — a home away from home or as a retirement haven for North Americans.
Modern Maturity graded each destination using 12 categories, ranging from weather, the cost of living, cultural programs, housing, public utility, communication, public health, medical facilities, environment, safety and security, and political stability.
Whether retirement is a distant dream, just around the corner, or if you are already retired, give some consideration in your retirement plan to living and traveling in a country other than where you are today. "The world is a book," declared Saint Augustine, "and those who do not travel, read only a page."
