Senior Citizens: Are You Retiring or Recharging?

Senior citizens have vast experience and wisdom to offer. People are living much longer. Therefore, retiring from the workforce does not mean retiring from living life to the fullest. It is a time to recharge and forge ahead with new goals, passions, and vision.

Retirement is, of course, a time to enjoy living by spending time with the grandchildren, traveling, and doing things you have always wanted to do since there is no longer a job that ties you down. Sadly, for some seniors who are living on a fixed income, some of this is not possible. Whatever the case may be, a senior does not have to be content with just allowing his or her life to subside into aimlessness.

I have had several conversations with seniors in recent months. One told me that after 70 things go downhill. I am sorry he felt that way because that isn’t necessarily true. Another person  had a positive mindset. She and I were talking about how more people are living into their nineties and even making it to 100. This means that if one retires from a vocation at 60 or 65, they may still have another 30 years left to dream new dreams and set new goals.

Stories abound with seniors who have fulfilled great desires. They have refused to retire from life. Harlan Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken by investing his first social security check. John Glenn became the oldest person to go into space at the age of 77, as payload specialist on a Discovery Space Shuttle mission. At the Palm Aire Country Club in Sarasota, Florida, Gus Andreone became the oldest person in PGA history to get a hole-in-one. He was 103! The advertisements we see in the media luring seniors to rest in an easy chair on the sands of a remote beach on an exotic island are nonsense. No, except for a physical or mental disorder over which a person has no control, life will deteriorate after 70 only if we let it.

Ask yourself what you can do to finish strong. We all know that on every tombstone is a dash between birth and death. It’s what one does in the dash that is more important than how long one lives. As seniors get closer to the end of the dash, decide to do something to make a difference and to live life intentionally with purpose. Have fun, enjoy retirement, and reward yourself for years of working, but do something to pass on your experience and wisdom to benefit those in the generations behind you.

There is a verse in the Bible from II Corinthians 4:16 which says,”Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” This is a very fitting verse for seniors. As our physical bodies become weaker our minds can still think anew. If sickness overtakes us, mental capacities may still be as sharp as a tack. It really is how we think.

Retiring or recharging? The choice is yours. I decided to recharge at 55 and fulfill my dream of becoming a published author and professional writer. My ministry has gone all around the world. I am just getting started with real living. How about you? What are some ways you can renew your inner person to move full speed ahead into your senior years? What are some things you have always wanted to do? What do you have to offer the younger generations?