Sneak Preview: "Wisdom of the Aged"

Wisdom of the Aged

Introduction

Recently I read a book entitled, "Age Doesn't Matter Unless You're A Cheese" by Kathryn and Ross Petras. It is a collection of quotes from famous people who have acquired great wisdom from having lived a long time. The quotes were very thought provoking and, nearing the milestone age of 75, I wanted to add some pearls of wisdom that I have picked up along the way. This is for the young people who can use this information to change the course of their lives.

This is from the introduction of the book:

"Yes, it's true. We are getting older.

For some, the passage of time is a blessing, to others a curse, but for all of us aging is a reality we can't escape. We can moan about it, we can accept it, or we can choose to celebrate the wisdom and perspective that so often go hand in hand with experience."

Wisdom of the Aged

Physicist Albert Einstein contributed this observation:

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

For me, life itself is a miracle, but the greatest miracle is the knowledge that one can determine his fate in life by making choices and taking action. The miracle is that we all have unlimited potential to accomplish anything we can conceive in our magic brain. Most people do not realize this game-changing fact.

Psychiastrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross:

"There are dreams of love, life, and adventure in all of us. But we are also sadly filled with reasons why we shouldn't try. These reasons seem to protect us, but in truth they imprison us. They hold life at a distance. Life will be over sooner than we think. If we have bikes to ride and people to love, now is the time."

The past is a cancelled check. The future is a promissory note. Today is ready cash; that's why they call it the "present"... Spend it wisely.

 Be here now. Enjoy every moment for you may not pass this way again. Have no regrets. Do what you love and the money will come.

Actress Billie Burke:

"Age...doesn't matter, unless you're a cheese."

"It Is NEVER TOO LATE to be what you might have been."

         ~George Eliot, writer

If a person adopts the habit of life-long learning and goal setting, there is almost no limit to what he or she can accomplish in one lifetime. With the proper attitude (I Will Not Be Denied!) age becomes an asset.

 One of the biggest lessons of life is that failure is O.K.! In fact, it is a requirement for success. If you never fail you are not venturing. If you don't venture, you cannot progress.

There is one caveat: with every failure, learn the lesson therein. Once the lesson is internalized, go forward without worry because you have a roadsign in your subconscious warning about that bad curve ahead. That is what you call a gut feeling, usually based on experience, usually bad experience. But now the bad experience has become good experience.

The other caveat about failure is this: never make the same mistake twice. Now, the rule becomes, he who fails the most, learns the most. Failures become experience, and experience morphs into wisdom.

Adventurer Sir Francis Chichester, after sailing around the world at age seventy-one:

"Train your will to concentrate on a limited objective. When young, you spread your effort over too many things...If your first try fails, what does it matter--all life is a failure at the end. The thing is to get sport out of trying."

When I was thirty years old, I went through a leadership development program that led to my setting 100 goals for my life. Initially they were merely Dreams to be converted into goals over time. A dream becomes a goal when it is written down with a target date attached.

Every New Year I would take out the list and evaluate the progress, or lack of same, on the items on my list. If some progress was made on an item perhaps we would decide to give it another year, or perhaps five, or even a lifetime.

Sir Francis was right about a limited objective in one sense. Goals must be prioritized. You can only focus on one goal at a time. Short term goals must be realistic and attainable. Worthwhile long term goals can be as high as the sky and worthy of a lifetime effort.

One goal which I set and accomplished at an early age was to start looking after my health. It was brought to my attention at a relatively young age, that if I didn't start taking care of myself better, it didn't matter how much money I made.

I did a self assessment and decided that I needed to quit drinking, smoking, and over-eating. I had gained thirty pounds in only three years out of the military. At that rate I would weigh 500 pounds by now, if I had not turned myself around.

The secret to habit modification, as I learned in the program, is simple. There is the easy way or the hard way, which do you prefer? The hard way is cold turkey. Most people don't have the self-discipline to do this. I certainly didn't.

So, naturally, I picked the easy way, which was...substitution! Pick a good habit that you wish to develop and substitute it for the bad habit you wish to eliminate. In my case, I decided to substitue drinking water for smoking cigarettes first, and then when I shifted priorities, to substitute it for alcohol. An added benefit to this strategy was that while quitting smoking, I lost 30 pounds because I was always full of water, which has very few calories.

My hundred goals have kept me excited to be alive and healthy for three quarters of a century and, if anything, I am picking up steam and accelerating my progress.

Writer/Lecturer Helen Keller (who was blind and deaf from 19 months):

" Security is mostly superstition...Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."

If a person like Helen Keller can make a statement like that, what is our excuse for letting fear, doubt, and worry keep us from realizing our dreams?

Last words of Blackfoot Warrior Crowfoot:

"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."

Amazing words of tender appreciation of life's beauty and mystery coming from a supposedly "savage" Indian Warrior...as we grow closer to the final curtain, we learn to appreciate life's beauty, realizing it may be the last time we see it, in this lifetime anyway.

From Comedian Harpo Marx:

"'The days of struggle are over,' I should be able to say. 'I can look back now and tell myself I don't have a single regret.'

But I do.

Many years ago a very wise man named Bernard Baruch took me aside and put his arm around my shoulder. 'Harpo, my boy,' he said, 'I'm going to give you three pieces of advice, three things you should always remember.'

My heart jumped and I glowed with expectation. I was going to hear the magic password to a rich, full life from the master himself. 'Yes, sir?' I said. And he told me the three things.

I regret I've forgotten what they were."

Since Harpo forgot, here they are from Success Motivation Insititue, Inc., the world's leading Success Academy:

1) Positive Mental Attitude- Belief, or Faith, will build persistence which is the most important characteristic for success.

2) Goal Direction- Having specific goals, with plans and target dates help keep you on track.

3) Self Motivation- The state of the art in motivation is SELF motivation, which occurs when you combine a positive attitude with goal setting. High goals and self motivation lead to massive success. 

Native American Prophet, Smohalla:

"Each one must learn for himself the highest wisdom. It cannot be taught in words...Men who work cannot dream, and wisdom comes to us in dreams."

The dreams can be night dreams or daydreams. It is a good practice to have a daily "Dream Session" with yourself, exploring the future in your "mind's eye", as Shakespeare called the imagination. Visualize the future as you would have it happen. Write it down and make a plan to overcome the obstacles. Attach target dates so you can measure your progress. We call them target dates rather than deadlines because they are not written in concrete. Target dates can be adjusted to fit the situation.

Goal setting is much like target practice. If you don't have a target to shoot at, you don't know what adjustments to make. In artillary school, young officers are taught to fire a round toward the target. Observe the hit and adjust as many times as needed to get "on target". Once there, the order to "Fire For Effect" is given...

This from Writer/Director Mel Brooks:

"Never retire! Do what you do and keep doing it. But don't do it on Friday. Take Friday off. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, do fishing, do sexual activities, watch Fred Astaire movies. Then from Monday to Thursday, do what you've been doing all your life, unless it's lifting bags of potatoes off the back of a truck. I mean, after eighty-five that's hard to do. My point is: Live fully and don't retreat."

A study by Duke University found that people that retire tend to die within 1 1/2 to 2 years...People need purpose in their lives, they need a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Without purpose (goals) the body starts shutting down. We must communicate to our body with our beautiful brain that we are not done, we have "miles to go before we sleep", as Robert Frost said so eloquently.

Dr Victor Frenkel, the author of "Man's Search For Meaning", related the story of how he survived the concentration camps in Nazi Germany. When he was arrested he lost the manuscript for a book he was writing. His passion was to re-create the manuscript, which he did...on toilet paper. His mission kept him alive.

Furthermore, he observed that the others who survived all had a driving mission to accomplish, whether it was to find a lost loved one or something similar. Their purpose kept them from giving up and laying down in the snow to die, which would have been so easy...

Director Frederico Fellini:

"When I was very young, I thought about what old age would be like. It didn't seem very real. I assumed I would be exactly the same as I was then, except that I might have a long white beard like Father Christmas and not ever have to shave. I planned to eat whatever I wanted--mozzarella, pasta, rich deserts--and I would travel and see all the museums I never had the time to see before.

One day I looked in the mirror and thought, 'Where did that old man come from?' Then I realized he was me, and all I wanted to do was work."

Because of what I learned at age 30 I have lived a life of adventure, doing everything I thought I would like to do. When that final curtain falls I will have no regrets. But for now, I have a lot of unfinished business (goals) to attend to. We won't be ready for that curtain call for a long, long time...

Composer Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber:

"Aging seems to be the only way to live a long life."

Time marches on. Life goes on. How long depends largely on your attitude. Doctors admit that many times, from a medical standpoint, a patient that should die ...lives; and a patient that should live...dies. The will to live is the difference. It's an attitude.

Life is all about attitude, the will to live, the joy of living. Your attitude is the only thing on earth over which you have complete control. Your attitude determines your altitude. Ask any pilot!

 A positive attitude is an attitude of positive expectancy, much like the night before Christmas, a feeling of good things to come...

Enjoy the trip. Do what you love and your passion will propel you to a long, healthy, happy life!

Test pilot General Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier:

"You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can't, you do the next best thing. You back up, but you don't give up."

Be like the inch worm, take life a step at a time. It's hard by the yard, but it's a cinch by the inch. Always have your top priority on the front burner. Focus like a laser. Get better with practice. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practive, practice, practice! Put in your ten thousand hours to become the Master of your sport,trade, craft, skill, business, or profession. Be the best. Expect miracles. You won't be disappointed!

Comedian Lucille Ball, Star of "I Love Lucy":

"The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age."

Age is just a number. The only certainity in life, is death. A lot of people don't even pay taxes, but they all die. But you don't need to lie about your age to stay young, just have a young attitude. Embrace the future, milk every ounce of joy out of the time that you have. If you think it, do it. That way, when the time comes for your final bow, you will have no regrets...

"Old age ain't for sissies."

       ~Actress Bette Davis

LIfe is hard. Old age is harder. But, if you start taking care of your health now by:1) eating healthy, organic food, and taking supplements of the 90 essential nutrients we require for our body to remain vibrant and healthy, and 2)exercise regularly, you wil be healthy and active until the end. The three legs of the 'Three-legged Stool of Good Health' are: 1)Nutrition 2)Exercise and, 3)Attitude...

Naturalist/Writer Gerald Durrell:

"Nothing except possibly love and death are of importance, and even the importance of death is somewhat ephemeral, as no one has yet faxed back a reliable report."

Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, the greatest self-help book ever written, said near the end of his life, after having sampled every type of succes imaginable, "Ultimately, nothing really matters." So enjoy your life and try not to take it too seriously, just take it, and do whatever makes you happy. No regrets!

Writer Clare Boothe Luce:

"If old age means a crown of thorns, the trick is to wear it jauntily."

Attitude is everything! It has been said that the primary purpose of the body is to carry the brain around. Develp your inner beauty and your mind, they will sustain you through the trials and tribulations that lie ahead.

Writer Jorge Luis Borges:

"I am almost sure to be blotted out by death, but sometimes I think it is not impossible that I may continue to live in some other manner after my physical death. I feel every suicide has that doubt: Is what I am going to do worthwhile? Will I be blotted out, or will I continue to live on in another world? Or, as Hamlet wonders, what dreams will come when we leave this body?"

There is clinical evidence of "Life After Life". A book by that name was written by a College professor that taught creative writing. He observed over the years that incoming freshmen who wrote a biographical sketch for his class, sometimes wrote of a near-death experience. What was interesting to him was that they all told almost the same story of their experience. They all remember a consciousness of travelling down a long corridor with a light at the end where they could see a beautiful scene. There was a figure in white coming toward them. Some even saw departed relatives and loved ones. They all woke up for various reasons, mostly concerning unfinished business, their major purpose in life.

Coincidence? I think not.

Historian Will Durant:

"The love we have in our youth is superficial compared to the love that an old man has for his wife."

Love truly makes the world go around. Everything a man does in life, is ultimately to please a woman. I've often said that if it weren't for women, men would still be living in caves...

Musician Arthur Rubinstein:

"I live by one principle: Enjoy life with no conditions! People say, 'If I had you health, if I had your money, oh, I would enjoy myself.' It is not true. I would be happy if I were lying sick in a hospital bed. It must come from the inside. That is the one thing I hope to have contributed to my children, by example and by talk: to make no conditions, to understand that life is a wonderful thing and to enjoy it, every day, to the full."

The French have a term, joire de vivre, the joy of living. Lincoln said that a man is just as happy as he makes up his mind to be, and he was a man who suffered great tragedy in his life, including the death of his fiance, and the death of a child.

 Lincoln was almost immune to failure, having lost some 17 elections before becoming President.

Live life to the hilt. Bust out of your comfort zone and JUST DO It!

Writer Agatha Christie:

" I learned that one can never go back, that one should not ever try to go back--that the essence of life is to go forward. Life really is a One Way Street."

Going back is not an option. Go on to the the next plan, project or purpose, the next adventure. I think of death as the "Next Great Adventure"...

Activist Maggie Kuhn's motto:

"Learning and sex until rigor mortis."

This pretty much says it all. If you love learning as much as sex you will have no regrets. Do what you love!

Stripper Gypsy Rose Lee:

"I have everything now that I had twenty years ago, except now it's all lower."

Make do with the equipment you have to work with. Fight the good fight. As Churchill told the British people during the darkest days of the London Blitz,

 "Never give up! Never give up! Never! Never! Never!"

Writer Freya Stark"

"Good days are to be gathered like sunshine in grapes, to be trodden and bottled into wine and kept for age to sip at ease beside the fire. If the traveler has vintaged well, he need trouble to wander no longer; the ruby moments glow in his glass at will."

Thanks to my lifetime of goal setting and action toward them, I have a wealth of memories, knowledge, and experience; of loves lost and found, an anticipation of the future that the best is yet to come. THAT is positive expectancy. It's an attitude...

Writer George Santayana:

"Never have I enjoyed youth so thoroughly as I have in my old age."

Have no regrets. Savor every moment. With an attitude of positive expectancy, the best is truly yet to come!

Director Frederico Fellini:

"Work became more important to me as I grew older. When you are very young, there are competing pleasures. Maybe you need less to make yourself happy because everything is new to you. The world of old age is a shrinking world. Smaller things are magnified. It's like childhood. Few people are important to you, but they are VERY important. LIttle things get bigger. Food becomes more important. It is your work that makes you feel young, not your love affairs. After a certain point, your love affairs make you feel older."

For me, having done everything I ever thought enough of to set a goal, I have no regrets or destractions except focusing on the unfinished business of my goals, my major purpose in life, which is sharing my hard-earned knowledge with the world.

Politician Lady Nancy Astor:

"I used to dread getting older because I thought I would not be able to do all the things I wanted to do, but now that I am older, I find that I don't want to do them."

Been there, done that.Life has its seasons. Now, approaching 75, I am in the Harvest Season, reaping the bounty of all the things I have learned and set in motion. Most people are waiting for their ship to come in, but they NEVER SENT ONE OUT!

Writer Victoria Holt:

"Never regret. If it's good, it's wonderful. If it's bad, it's experience."

All experience is good, even the bad, if the lesson is learned, allowing you to do it better the next time, or to avoid it altogether.

Writer Saul Bellow:

"In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul. It may be difficult to find because by midlife it is overgrown, and some of the wildest thickets that surround it grow out of what we describe as our education. But the channel is always there, and it is our business to keep it open, to have access to the deepest part of ourselves."

Napoleon Hill titled his book "Think and Grow Rich" for a reason. His studies of highly successful people revealed that they all would spend virtually 24 hours a day thinking, thinking about their plans, problems, and projects literally thinking their way to success. It is important to have a daily brain-storming session with yourself, and others. Your brain is your most valuable asset. Clear the thickets and tap into your greatest power...

Musician Pablo Casals:

"As long as you can admire and love, then one is young forever."

Beauty and love have the power to motivate one to extraordinary achievement, even putting off death until the very last second...

Statesman Jimmy Carter:

"Go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is."

Intelligent risk-taking is what seperates the winners from the also- rans.

Writer J.B. Priestley:

"One of the delights known to age, and beyond the grasp of youth, is that of Not Going."

Social pressure diminishes with age. Thinking, for the older folks, frequently replaces doing, especially if you have done it before. Much easier and more fun to do an instant-replay in your mind's eye.

Writer Ram Das, author of "Be Here Now":

"Death is the wake-up call, the unavoidable mandate, that makes enlightenment possible, and helps our souls to grow. This is why Plato, when asked on his deathbed for one final word of advice, responded to his pupils, 'Practice dying.'"

We are all working toward the same deadline (no pun intended), which illustrates the power of a deadline, or target date, to motivate. Just like in the last two minutes of a football game, frenetic activity frequently results in spectacular performance. A person with many unfinished goals, will do an astonishing amount of work when faced with his approaching death.

President Grant was dying of cancer and yet, in order to provide for his family in the days before Presidential pensions, worked long and hard on his memoirs even though in constant pain. Like the good soldier he was, he got the job done.

Politician Sam Rayburn:

"Don't try to go too fast. Learn your job. Don't ever talk until you know what you're talking about...If you want to get along, go along."

Slow and sure. Patience is difficult to master. Just remember, it is a long life. Relax and enjoy the trip.

Writer Isaac Bashevis Singer:

"Literature has neglected the old and their emotions. The novelist never told us that in life, as in other matters, the young are just beginners and that the art of loving matures with age and experience."

EVERYTHING improves with practice, even love...

Actress Ruby Dee:

" I read a story once of a group of Jews who were escaping the Nazis.They were walking over a mountain, and they carried with them the sick and the old and the children. A lot of old people fell by the wayside and said, 'I'm a burden; go on without me.' They were told, 'The mothers need respite, so instead of just sitting there and dying, would you take the babies and walk as far as you can?' Once the old people got the babies close to their bosom and started walking, they all went over the mountain. They had a reason to live."

The will to live can even overcome death. You just need a good enough reason to live...

Conductor Pierre Monteux:

"I still have two abiding passions. One is my model railway, the other--women. But, at the age of eighty-nine, I find I am getting just a little too old for model railways."

It is a wise man who can get his priorities straight!

Actor/Director Clint Eastwood:

"To me, life is like the back nine in golf. Sometimes you play better on the back nine. You may not be stronger, but hopefully you're wiser. And if you keep most of your marbles intact, you can add a note of wisdom to the coming generation."

If you work out your body and your brain, you will not only be wiser in your old age, but stronger as well. Man can build muscle at any age and the brain is the hardiest muscle in the body. Harness its potential and be a superstar in your old age. But you must start NOW!

Actress/Writer Ruth Gordon:

"Courage is very important. Like a muscle, it is strengthened by use."

Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is taking action IN SPITE OF the fear...Act fearless and you will BE fearless.

Missionary and Philosopher Albert Schweitzer:

"A man can do only what a man can do. But if he does that each day, he can sleep at night and do it again the next day."

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. If you continue putting one foot in front of the other you will be amazed at the ground you can cover in one lifetime!

Writer W. Somerset Maugham:

"It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very ofter get it..."

Set you sights on what you want, no matter how high the goal. A high goal has more power to motivate than a low goal. Desire gives you the go-power within to overcome the obstacles you face.

Activist Maggie Kuhn:

"I'm having a glorious old age. One of my greatest delights is that I have outlive most of the opposition."

Outliving your enemies is one of the sweeter fruits of old age...

Writer Logan Pearsall Smith"

"The old know what they want; the young are sad and bewildered."

Knowing what you want is the key to getting what you want. Visualizing your goals is the key to experiencing them in advance, and helps build the white hot heat of desire which is necessary to persist in attaining them.

Singer Ella Fitzgerald:

"It isn't where you come from; it's where you're going that counts."

The world steps aside for someone who knows where they are going.