Older, but not expired

There’s no getting around it – our bodies change as we get older. The muscles aren’t as firm, the joints aren’t as flexible and the hairline is retreating.

We might not have the energy of our younger years, and the mirror can occasionally deliver some fairly brutal feedback.

It’s easy to concentrate on what we’ve lost. We’re not as strong, fast or conventionally attractive as we once were. But getting older isn’t simply about losing things; it’s also about what we keep and what we gain.

We remain smart. We remain curious. We have a lifetime of experience and knowledge that makes us interesting to other people and valuable to our families and communities.

The trick is accepting the changes without allowing them to define us.

That might mean admitting that we need to take a little more care of ourselves. Perhaps we can’t run up the stairs two at a time any more, but we can still walk, swim, cycle, play tennis or find another form of exercise that suits our changing bodies.

And there is plenty of good advice available. We know more than ever about nutrition, exercise, sleep and maintaining our mental wellbeing. We don’t have to become fitness fanatics or live on lettuce leaves, but a little effort can make a surprisingly big difference.

Keeping our minds active matters too. Read a book. Learn something new. Take up an instrument. Do a course. Travel somewhere you’ve never been. Learn how to use the technology your grandchildren seem to understand instinctively. There’s no age limit on being curious.

None of this means abandoning the things we’ve always loved. We can still listen to our favourite music, watch sport, go to the theatre, have dinner with friends, spend time with family or sit somewhere beautiful with a cup of coffee and watch the world go by.

Sometimes we simply have to find a different way of doing the things we enjoy.

Getting older is not an instruction to close the door on life. It’s an invitation to adapt.

Yes, we may have to work a little harder to stay healthy. We may need to accept some limitations and ask for advice or assistance occasionally. But we also have something younger versions of ourselves didn’t possess: perspective.

We know what matters. We know what doesn’t. And, if we’re lucky, we have learned that being interesting, curious, kind and engaged with life has very little to do with looking 30.

Growing older isn’t the end of the story. It’s simply the next chapter – and there’s no reason it can’t be a very good one.

If you like this kind of thing, feel free to buy me a coffee.