Do Not Give Up On Your Future
Feeling like this is as good as it gets—and that’s not good enough? Do not give up on your future.
Barb Here
First, Understand You are Not Alone.
Lynnelle and I have written some honest posts about being mired in the muck, being stuck, not being happy with our current state of affairs.
If you’ve reached your “Golden Years” (now defined by some as over 60) and are wondering why it doesn’t feel all that “gold”, you are not alone. Others are struggling with health, caring for their grandkids or their parents, or have been laid off (age discrimination, much?) Others have lost savings or investments due to divorce, unscrupulous advisors, health costs, or because they just plain messed up. Most of us have made decisions we now regret and have to live with or overcome.
So many of the 60+ sites, articles, and blogs are all about travel and make-up and fashion and being absolutely fabulous in our flipping so-called “Golden Years” that we forget the majority of those over 60 will be working until they are 70 by necessity, do not have enough savings, and are not living the dream.
Do Not Give Up on Your Future.
The important thing to remember is that we can still manage an abrupt turn—just as we did when we messed up at age 20 or 30 or 40. We may not be as nimble when we practice our sun salutations but we can be nimble in our thoughts and deeds.
The alternative is believing that it’s too late and just giving up.
I say to hell with that!
You know I’m serious when I use “bad” words. (No words are “bad”. Lynnelle laughs at me.)
This article is inspiring, but has at least one factual flaw regarding Judi Dench, she may not have starred in a blockbuster until she was 60, but she had a great career before that time. Worried about your weight? Karl Lagerfeld lost 90 pounds after he turned 68. Want to write and make money? Mary Wesley wrote 10 bestsellers including The Camomile Lawn after she was 70. My favorite quote from this article:
“OUR youth-obsessed culture invented a mythical 27 Club, a cohort of tragic and talented musicians including Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Amy Winehouse, who burned bright and died at 27.
Well it’s too late for me to “live fast and leave a good-looking corpse” unless I run over a supermodel on my mobility scooter. (BJH: WTF?)
It is time we had a 99 Club for people who take author George Eliot’s dictum to heart: “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” (Italics, mine.)
All you have to do to join the club is achieve all you can before you are 100.” Nigel Burke writing for The Express in 2015
Think about it. We are living longer and many of us are healthier than prior generations. If we decide at 60 that nothing will get any better, we are planning for FORTY FLIPPING YEARS OF MEDIOCRITY OR WORSE!
I refuse that future. Instead, I will join the 99 Club and absolutely believe and act upon the belief that “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” I have to believe and do. I have to accept the things I can’t change and do an end run around them. (That’s football, right?) I have to accept the things I can’t change and decide they don’t flipping matter.
The “featured image” is me, incredibly happy and having an adventure in the Azores. I am claiming that for my future.
We Probably Can’t Have it All, But We Can Have More
This is a better article, discussing folks who achieved great things long after they were 60. Most of them had some success in the same or another field prior to that. It’s important to remember that we have a lot of successes in our past, too. We’re still here, we have people who love and admire us, and we’ve done good things. We need to remember that. And we need to believe in ourselves.
I refuse to give up.
I am not done with life; I am planning future adventures; I am correcting my mistakes and moving on. Will I become as svelte as Karl Lagerfeld? Hell, no! Will I become as stylish as Katherine Hepburn? Not likely. But I am not done becoming the best Barbara J. Hart I can be.
I refuse to give up. I will focus on the future, work where I can and regale you with stories about my numerous jobs in St. Augustine. I will stop bitching, whining, whinging*, and complaining about my current lot in life. I can afford to, because…
My next act is going to be flipping awesome!
Yours can be, too.
Do not give up on your future!
(We won’t. We will stick by you like Jane sticks by Lily and like Lily sticks by Jane. BFFS.)
* Whinging — I love this word and have heard many of my friends from across the Atlantic use it. “Whinging” is best said with a bit of disgust.
From Merriam-Webster’s website.
Definition of whinge
whinged; whinging or whingeing
British
: to complain fretfully : whine
—
whinge
noun, British
Also, feel free to call me out for whinging in the future. It’s a new line in the sand.