How to Be Okay with Turning 60

Does turning 60 seem awful? Or maybe you did so not too long ago.

Are you wondering how to be okay with turning 60? Here is what I’ve learned about turning any age with grace and ease: Age is what you make it.

Choose Your Thoughts & Be Okay with Turning 60

Over 3 decades ago, my dad mailed me an article he had torn out of a magazine (remember those days?) about how you can choose your feelings. The article really hit home with me.

Fast forward to now, and I have learned that I can be happy living from this paradigm.

It’s not what happens that is upsetting, unsettling or devastating. It’s how I look at it. The shift has been an ongoing way of being, but it really does work.

For example, here is one way to look at turning 60

I am old.
I won’t be able to ________________ again.
Everyone will think I am so old now.
Life will never be the same.
This sucks.
It only gets worse from here.
No one will hire me if I need to change jobs or work again.

Here is another way to look at turning 60.

This is so much better than the alternative, which is never turning 60.
I am looking forward to this next stage in life.
Here’s what all I plan to do over the next decade.
I am so grateful for _______________________________. (This can be anything; friends, family, pets, home, sight, hearing, money, etc.)
I feel the same as I did yesterday.
I am young to a 75 year old person.
60 is the new 45.
I have wisdom.

Now, let’s look these positive points to be okay with turning 60 instead of getting depressed about it because it is our choice.

Turning 60 Vs the Alternative

There’s not much to say about this. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather turn 60 than never turn 60.

And if I never turned 60 it would mean not experiencing all the wonderful things I experience on a “normal” basis.

I think of my friend who died at the age of 42 only to never see her children reach adulthood.

Or my 2 friends who died on the highway in college driving from Ole Miss to Mississippi State.

Any one of them would have definitely been okay with turning 60. It’s all how we look at it.

Meaningful Life after 60

By the time you’re 60, you have knowledge, experience and wisdom.

The amount of information you learn in a decade is astounding. Just think of how much you learn in 6 decades!

And it’s all there for us to use in the next decade or to start with something entirely new.

It’s not just knowledge and work related experiences that you have when turning 60. It’s wisdom that only comes with age.

How can you use all this to live a meaningful life after 60?

What’s next?

What matters to you? Choose to do it.

Feeling Gratitude

I truly am so grateful for so many things. There’s friends, family, my white Labrador, my beautiful home, my sight, hearing, our money, and the list goes on.

But I have also seen how many tiny little miracles I am taking for granted every day.

For example, instead of the quick memorized blessings said in the past, I have been really looking at my dinner plate before eating and seeing:

Fresh organic greens from across the country
Avocados, fruit and vegetables from other countries
Fresh sockeye salmon flown in from Alaska
Olive oil from Italy
Green tea from Japan
Local wild honey
Sparkly Pink Himalayan salt

And I think of the miracle that every meal is in relation to the people who are without any food at all, and for the people who lived only a few decades ago that were limited to a small local grocery store.

And beyond the food, what about the all amazing things we can do while we eat?

We may as well jump online to face time with our good friend in another country.

Or select a movie out of thousands available, a documentary that changes our life, a Brene Brown Ted Talk, or meditate with a guru alongside Oprah.

I think turning 60 is okay, if not downright wonderful. There is so much to be grateful for today.

How Does Turning 60 Feel?

Before I turned 60, my hairdresser told me that the worse thing about turning 60 was the anticipation. Then, one day it happens: You wake up 60 years old and absolutely nothing has changed.

It’s true. Being 60 felt no different from being 59.

What to Do at 60 and Beyond

Write a note from your 70 year old self to your 60 year old self. What will your future self say?

One of the things will probably be to enjoy the youth of being only 60.

And there may be a suggestion for you to “go for it”, whatever “it” is for you. You know, it’s all those things you really want to do but haven’t gotten to yet.

My list includes backpacking in Europe, speaking French, expanding my entrepreneurial skills, and abstract painting.

We’re not getting any younger, so let’s make this the decade.

Is 60 Old?

When in conversation with my wonderful mother, she used to refer to my friends as “young people”. It always made me chuckle.

But we were young to her. She was always over 3 decades older! Age is all relative.

Is 60 is the new 45?

When I see photos of my great Aunt Bea at 60, she looks so freaking old. But here’s the thing: She was old.

Life expectancy was much less back then.

Plus, people didn’t go to Barre class, jump on exercise bikes or go to the gym.

They didn’t eat organic food and drink green tea. They drank freeze dried instant coffee, smoked, and had a mouth full of mercury fillings. Remember?

60 is, in fact, the new 45. And that’s pretty cool for us, right?

Is 60 Too Old to Get in Shape?

Speaking of exercise, 60 is a great age to get in shape. After tolerating horrible pain related to scoliosis and a fused spine for the past few years, I decided to take barre class.

It’s safe to say that I felt pretty foolish with a bunch of millennial’s in the class sporting my newly acquired Barre suitable outfits. The results have been amazing.

I told my teacher I am using muscles I haven’t used since I was 25 when I had surgery to fuse my spine.

Plus, there’s walking, home weights, exercise bikes, gyms, senior fitness classes, swimming, and yoga. There’s Pilates and personal fitness trainers.

Using one or two of these options make getting in shape over 60 a breeze.

Is 60 Too Old to Change Careers?

Recent studies have shown that businesses begun by entrepreneurs over 55 have a much higher success ratio than those begun by younger entrepreneurs.

Charles Flint founded IBM when he was 61 according to Entrepreneur magazine!

While it is my opinion that the job market becomes more challenging after your 50’s, we found becoming entrepreneurs later in life fulfilling and financially rewarding.

And one of my friends here in Austin just landed her dream at age 58 after being out of the workforce for several years.