What’s Your Next Level Ambition?

Less than 100 years ago, a revolutionary new social program went in to effect to protect older people. Social Security offered monetary benefits to those who reached the age of 65 so they could stop working.

It wasn’t an arbitrary number, given that life expectancy for men was only 58 years, with the average for all topping out at 62. So you had to be above average on life span to even qualify, which meant most people still worked until they died.

We’ve achieved greater advances in life expectancy over those 100 years than in the entirety of human history. And yet despite that, we have also retained an expectation of retirement in our 60s.

That doesn’t make a lot of sense. So it’s not surprising that there are those who don’t entertain the thought of retirement at all.

Ambition doesn’t just magically disappear at 65, and neither does the desire to contribute. And while earlier ambitions related to our careers and families defined how we got here, they don’t necessarily reflect what we want to do next.

Oddly, it’s often people with plenty of money who are the last ones to retire. These are people who’ve been driven by something else all along. They’re here to do the things that fill them with purpose, and no arbitrary age is going to make them stop doing what they do.

Whether you need to keep working or simply want to (or both), your attitude about it will define the quality of your second adulthood. And unlike other things that are beyond your control, your attitude is up to you.

With that said, scroll down to read Trudi’s piece on cultivating an unstoppable career, or read it on the web by clicking the link below.

Further reading:

Cultivating an Unstoppable Career (Further)

Keep going-

Brian Clark

P.S. New to Further? Join us here.

Tales from the “Duh” Department

What’s better for your health and longevity – taking the stairs or the elevator? I think you can figure this one out. Don’t get me started about able-bodied people who stand there on the moving walkways at the airport.

Elevator or Stairs? Your Choice Could Boost Longevity, Study Finds (NPR)

Work It Now, Remember It Later

For a little over a decade, scientists have been studying a subset of people they call “super-agers” who have the memory ability of a person 20 to 30 years younger. The super-agers didn’t report doing more exercise at their current age than the typical older adults, but they were more active in middle age. 🤯

A Peek Inside the Brains of ‘Super-Agers’ (New York Times gift article)

Extended Life Remix

The biggest fear Gen Xers have as we get older is outliving their money. But it’s also a prominent worry for Millennials as well. It’s not just depressed savings rates and the prospect of yet another financial crisis. It’s that living for 30 year without working is not feasible for the vast majority of people.

Even Young People Are Worried About Running Out of Money in Retirement. Are You? (Motley Fool)

The New Normal

The answer to worries about outliving your money is already becoming apparent, as more people are working longer. The only real question is whether you see this as a blessing or a burden.

More Americans are Working Past Age 65 — and that’s Good News for Employers (Fortune)

Cultivating an Unstoppable Career

By Trudi Roth

“When will you retire?” a friend asked me recently.

My automatic answer: “From what?”

The inference — work is a burden and a chore — is as antiquated as the retirement myth itself. If you’re like me, you’re finally in a groove, excelling in your field and collaborating with people you like and/or respect.

Now, you might want to change your job, schedule, or the intensity at which you work, but those are things anyone at any age might desire. It doesn’t mean you want to “retire,” which means to withdraw from contributing in your area of excellence.

Keeping going isn’t unreasonable, but it is a special kind of ambition. The New York Times recently unpacked the secrets of a lifelong career by interviewing “unstoppable” icons in their 80s and 90s, including Maxine Hong Kingston, Joan Collins, Giorgio Armani, Betye Saar, and Martha Stewart.

As it turns out, chasing your dreams doesn’t have an expiration date. You just have to be willing to evolve.

An Attitude for the Ages

In Okinawa, Japan — one of the Blue Zones where people routinely live exceptionally long lives — there isn’t a word for retirement. The term is “Ikigai,” or reason for living, as artist Saar explains:

Not everyone has a reason to get out of bed, something they love to do and that gives their life meaning. I am so lucky that I have that as part of my life.

That driving force doesn’t come from outside of you. Both Armani and Collins point to a vital internal desire for personal fulfillment that’s supported by a work ethic, commitment, and resilience.

It’s also about not buying into the idea that somehow you should know it all by a certain age. As Julie Louis-Dreyfus’ podcast points out (now in Season 2!), there’s always someone older and wiser than you. As Stewart affirms:

Maybe a little uncertainty can help fuel ambition.

That, along with patience, flexibility, and curiosity, are unstoppable staples.

Never Stop Never Stopping

And there’s one more key ingredient that all of the interviewees commented on: their lack of focus on aging. For Hong Kingston, it’s a mindset:

In a way, I don’t believe in old age… Age is just time going by, and that’s very mysterious.

Armani is more pragmatic about it:

In truth, I don’t think about age much. In my head, I am the same age I was when I started Giorgio Armani. Situations and people change, but the challenges and problems are all the same in the end.

Collins is defiant:

I refuse to be defined by a number, by an age. I think that’s terribly old-fashioned and not relevant in today’s world.

And Saar doesn’t think about her age unless someone mentions it, so… don’t mention it. After all, ambition doesn’t have a timeline unless you set one for yourself.

The Unstoppables: Sharing the Secrets of a Lifelong Career (New York Times gift article)

Wiser Than Me With Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Season 2 (Podcast)