How to Enjoy Life After 60

(Last Updated On: October 2, 2019)

Welcome to The Midlife ToolBox, a very special series of guest posts written by Midlife Bloggers from all over the world. We are unique women, and even though we are all getting older, our perspective, challenges, and ways we see life are definitely unique! I hope you enjoy these wise words and gain some insight from them. I know I will.

Our guest blogger this week is Jo Castro of Lifestyle Fifty, and she has some words of wisdom to share with us about how to enjoy life after turning 60.

I can certainly relate to that! And, even if you haven’t celebrated the “Big 60” yet, you’ll find Jo’s tools to be insightful, relatable, succinct, and on point.

Let’s hear from Jo:

At each Big 0 birthday from the age of 30 upwards, I’ve felt the passage of time keenly. I’ve always had the feeling that time is slipping like sand through an egg timer, impossible to halt, and now that I’m past the Big 60 time seems to be flashing by quicker than ever.

To be honest, I never felt particularly old at 50 (and still don’t at over 60) but at the 60 milestone I acknowledged that I was probably getting older – in that I wasn’t perceived as young anymore. 

It was probably at 60 that I first thought of myself as senior in many respects of that word, although I’m not going to give in to the Lifestyle Village retirement home advertisement presets of how they perceive seniors, and I’m not going to give up wearing shorter dresses just yet either!

To begin with, I rallied against this notion – being an adult adult that is. I had younger friends and identified with my children and their generation, but deep down I realised that probably I did not – not really, and that imperceptibly the gap was widening as my years advanced.

And as their years still hopefully stretch out before them, so mine, in reality, are diminishing, and I realise that actually I need to take this seriously.

Call me slow to perceive reality, but in the last couple of years this realisation has finally been sinking in, and I’ve come to terms with the fact that I need to pay some attention to creating specific tools to guide me.

How to Enjoy Life After 60
Tools in My ToolBox

And so in my toolbox, I don’t have hammers and nails, but I do have the following ‘memory’ flash cards stored, without a lock, for myself and anyone else who’d like to take a peek.

1. Accept the age and the skin you are in – relax. You can’t turn back time. Your wrinkles are not your enemy. They attest to a life lived.
2. Be grateful for your health and mobility – really grateful. And make the most of it – get out and do the exercise. Walk in nature while you can.
3. Make the most of how you look – dress well, get your hair done, have a manicure and pedicure. Feel good about yourself (your body is an incredible thing) It’s fine to use all the tricks of the beauty trade to look a bit younger than you really are if it makes you feel more confident. Just don’t chase youth for youth’s sake.
4. Don’t diet to be thin. Eat to nourish your amazing body.
5. Realise that now you are one of the wise ones. You do have wisdom. Dispense it wisely and always within the context of our changing times and all the new ideas, new science, and new knowledge.
6. Keep Learning: ” As we grow older, we must discipline ourselves to continue expanding, broadening, learning, keeping our minds active and open.” Clint Eastwood.
7. Keep up with the times. If you can’t, then don’t be a ‘when we’ or ‘when I was young’ exponent, but rather accept that the world is changing faster than ever, and will never ever again be the same place it was when you were young.
8. Focus on what you can do in your life now. Focus on those you have around you. Love them to distraction.
9. Don’t beat yourself up about being somewhere you can’t be, but do travel and get out of your comfort zone when you can.
10. Accept the circle of life especially as parents get older, become ill, pass on. And don’t dwell on what you could have done, should have said, or might have done better. 
11. Most of all “Life is what it is.” Be at peace with the situation you’re in and make the most of every minute.

With all this in mind, there are still dreams and considerations I have for my future years, which I hope the tools in my toolbox will help make come true.

How about you? What tools do you have stored to guide you today and in the future?

Jo Castro is an active 60+ lifestyle blogger who has traveled the world and now resides in Western Australia. Her blog, LifestyleFifty, has been acclaimed as one of the top lifestyle blogs in Australia and New Zealand. Jo also publishes ZigaZag.com, a useful resource for anyone wanting to live or holiday in Western Australia.

Please connect with Jo!

Website: https://lifestylefifty.com

Facebook: https://facebook.com/lifestylefifty

Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/lifestylefifty

Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifestylefifty

Twitter: https://twitter.com/johannaAcastro

Are you interested in submitting a guest post for this series? Contact me at candi@inspiremystyle.com and include your blog or website URL. We’ll have a chat! Thanks.

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