Heads up, Boomers

By Tamela Thomas, Wellness Manager

A gazillion books, tapes, intensive programs, business retreats and national speakers have hit the scene over the years to drive in example after example of the exponential power of a well-crafted goal.

So you already know all about goals, right? You've been a successful goal setter all your life. You worked hard and have met your needs for security, family, etc. So, why an article about goal setting? It's a reminder for all of you Boomers out there who might have forgotten the golden rule of goal setting: UPDATE your goals! This month's article is written by travel writer, author and gerontologist Bill Morton. His message is clear. And we know it intuitively but maybe we just haven't heeded its wisdom for a long time.

Mapping the Second Half

By Bill Morton, MEd, Business Gerontologist, Author

Somehow it was so easy back then. So simple. So clear. Had anyone asked us Baby Boomers at age 8 or 18 what plans we had for ourselves or where we saw our lives going, our upwardly mobile answers would have had a familiar ring. We would have thought, "Well, I'm a pretty good student or athlete so I'm going to study hard and try to get a scholarship to college." We knew we would graduate. We hoped to find a mate who we could love for a lifetime. We knew we wanted a professional career, and we'd work hard on our career path. We'd buy a nice home with an eye for paying it off early. We'd hope to have a couple of kids and be the best parents we could possibly be. And we'd toss in a couple of memorable vacations along the way.

At age 55, I'm pleased to say that I did all of that—every one of my goals has been achieved. Now what should I do? Gerontologists tell us that, thanks to medical advancements, we're all living a lot longer than any of us had planned—10 to 15 years longer than our parents. The simple reality is that we Boomers have another 40, 50 or 60 years staring us dead-on. We face a "Second Half" of life.

Though most of us rank high on goal-orientation measures, and most of us hit all the markers along the way, we have realized that successfully navigating our Second Half is quite a bit more involved than blowing off 40 years on the back 9 with the simple pronouncement, "I'm going to retire." In truth, no other generation in history has been challenged with a historical metamorphosis like that facing Boomers in the next 20 years.

Because we are living longer, 25% of Americans will be traversing essentially uncharted territory—we'll be the Great Migration of 1843 hiking the Oregon Trail with only scuttlebutt from the occasional mountain man or prospector to help us find our way. We'll need a good map to help us get there. But where is "there"? Where do we want to go in our Second Half—in the 40+ years after we start thinking about retirement? We can discover that answer as we rethink in the following areas:

Rethinking retirement

Is retirement really a solution—a worthy life goal—or is it just a status symbol? Are having responsibility and a bottom line to keep an eye on detrimental to our health and happiness? Studies tell us the opposite: we will live longer and report ourselves happier when we keep working. Rethinking our health. The single, most effective method for optimizing our financial health in the Second Half of our lives is to keep physically fit—stay healthier longer. The best studies on Second Half health by the MacArthur Foundation and Tufts University demonstrate that dramatic improvements can occur at any age of life—even into our 90s—by building muscle and bone mass. If having additional discretionary hours every day is the benefit of our reaching our 60s, then what's wrong with devoting 2 hours every day to mixing up water aerobics, tai-chi, free weights, walking, weight machines, jazz dancing, biking, physio-balling and more?

Rethinking what's important

If we had a week to live, we would know what's important. We'd gather our family and friends, and we would talk. So what's wrong with doing that every week for the next 40 years? Rethinking giving back. Even though we can now realistically look forward to a long life, we won't be here forever. What will our legacy be? Can we plant trees that will stand for 300 years and shade 10 generations of our children's children? Can we give something to someone without their knowing who gave it? Can we help a truly deserving person? Isn't giving life's greatest joy? We don't need to be on our deathbed to be a giver.

Rethinking friend-making

Can we have too many friends? Do our best friends have to be our same age? I'll admit that extending oneself to forge a new friendship is a risk, but isn't the pay-off great? What if we set a goal of inviting a never-before-invited person to dinner at least once a month? Or a goal of inviting a new person at least 20 years younger for lunch at least once a quarter?

Rethinking love and marriage

America's two best visionaries of aging in America, Gail Sheehy and Dr. Ken Dychtwald, agree that a by-product of the "Longevity Revolution" will be, if not strange bedfellows, new bedfellows. When a married male dies, his wife (typically, if she is over 50) has little interest in remarrying. The good news is that society has gotten over several major hang-ups: Older women can be socially involved on their own, not as a half of a couple; and they can certainly enjoy each other's company. The result is a wonderful new world of deep relationships between surviving women. When married women die first, typically, men quickly find new women to love and live with, or they die soon after. Interestingly, the lifespan of unmarried men is dramatically shorter than their married pals.

Rethinking Travel

Two years ago our mid-50s neighbors surprised us at a dinner party by announcing they had been accepted for a two-year Peace Corps stint in the Slovak Republic. "I didn't know you've retired." "We haven't. We're just taking a mid-career break!"

Other friends are swapping homes with a British couple. There are free University classes at the University of Texas in Austin (no in-state residency required); "Kur" vacations in Germany; Sister City visits in Kobe, Beer Sheva, Perugia or Mombasa; and renting a "Gite" farmhouse in France. Amazingly, the less money you spend on travel, the richer the experience and the greater the discovery. With more time to savor travel in our Second Half, we gain more heartfelt insights along the way.

Rethinking the map

Almost all of us will have the chance to enjoy more years of life on this planet than any other group of people in history. For not just a few, that's a scary thought. It isn't frightening to those of us with goals. We have lists of things we want to do when we are 75, and more lists for when we are 85, and still more lists for when we are 95. What keeps our juices flowing? Goals, and plans (roadmaps) for achieving them.

It's been true for our first 50 years—it won't change in our Second Half.