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Fred thought much about aging. One of his best received and best known articles for Leadership Journal carried the title, “Older, but Never Old.” He lived just like that. Some of his thoughts were encapsulated dynamite. This week features many of them.
Older but Never Old
- I’m for aging – slowly, if you please. When I asked my friend what period of life he would have liked to live in he said, “As far in the future as possible!”
- I started aging the day I was born…on the back of my birth certificate is my death certificate.
- Memory is the way we keep in touch with our past, but it should not be the way we keep living in the present. Joining the “used-to club” is counter productive.
- Activity helps the mind forget what’s going on with the body. There is nothing wrong with me that a little excitement won’t cure.
- Start the aging process early – avoid surprises through preparation financially, emotionally, spiritually, physically, and especially relationally. Don’t make a junkyard out of your old age.
- Life is divided into two groups: those who are aging and those who are not. Those who are aging are breathing.
- Health has four elements: mobility, energy, lack of pain, and ability to accommodate suffering.
- As we age we become mutual mentors with our children.
- Make a list of annoying “old people” habits while still young and read it to as you age. Make peace with physical limitations and show grace to others.
- Finish well by focusing on the right things. Forget the fading: looks, power, position and accent the forever: relationships, spiritual, contribution.
- Ask better questions. Engage people in conversation to stay relevant.
- Weed out cynicism…a cynic would ride through a sewer in a glass-bottomed boat!
- Script your last act; be your own author; express appreciation; bring down the curtain with poise.
- A great philosophy will get you into the grave, but only a correct theology will get you through the grave.
- Delightfully dependent is how I want to view physical disability.
- A racer never fears the finish line.
- Aging requires shifting from doing to being – love doesn’t require earning.
- The age of the lamp doesn’t affect its ability to give light.
- It is important to define the “new normal.”
- Move the deterioration to the periphery and maintain the integrity of the core.
This week think about: 1) Where am I in the aging process? 2) How am I progressing in my goal to finish well? 3) Who needs to have a conversation about aging?
Words of Wisdom: “I started aging the day I was born. On the back of my birth certificate is my death certificate.”
Wisdom from the Word: “They bear fruit even when they are old;
they are filled with vitality and have many leaves.” (Psalm 92:14 NET Bible)
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