“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)
