{"id":7373,"date":"2023-08-07T14:54:34","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T18:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=7373"},"modified":"2023-08-07T14:54:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T18:54:34","slug":"making-the-most-of-the-extra-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2023\/08\/making-the-most-of-the-extra-30\/","title":{"rendered":"Making the Most of the \u2018Extra 30\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Bob Evans lost his job in 2009, he began to consider what was next. He\u2019d spent more than 30 years in the horticulture industry, mostly in sales and customer service positions in landscaping and lawn care. <\/span><\/p>\n

His wife reminded him that, in his 20s, Evans had wanted to become a nurse but set the dream aside to support the family. <\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s too late now,” he replied.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I don’t think so,” she said. <\/span><\/p>\n

So Evans went back to school\u2014in his mid-50s, the oldest person in his class. He earned a nursing degree and got a job as a registered nurse in a hospital. Just as he\u2019d imagined in his 20s, he loved the work. <\/span><\/p>\n

People can expect later-in-life pivots, like Evans\u2019 new career, to become more and more common as we live longer, according to the Stanford Center on Longevity. Human life expectancies doubled between 1900 and 2000. Living to age 100 will become commonplace by the middle of the 21<\/span>st<\/span> century. <\/span><\/p>\n

As more people live to 100, they may alternate time spent on work and career with periods devoted to family or caregiving.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe 100-year life is here,\u201d according to the Center\u2019s report, <\/span>The New Map of Life.<\/span><\/i> \u201cWe\u2019re not ready.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Most people still expect life and career to follow the timeline shaped by a 60- or 70-year lifespan, according to the report, viewing the \u201cextra\u201d 20 or 30 years afforded by increased longevity as an extension of retirement and older age. In this model, college and graduate school, childrearing and prime earning years are crammed into the 20s, 30s and 40s. <\/span><\/p>\n

That needs to change, according to the report. This unparalleled demographic shift \u201ccalls for equally momentous and creative changes in the ways we lead these longer lives.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

As more people live to 100, the report predicts, life trajectories will become more fluid and more flexible, and multiple transitions over the course of life will be viewed as \u201ca feature, not a bug.\u201d People will shift gears routinely, to new phases of work and career, possibly alternating with periods devoted to lifelong learning or family and caregiving responsibilities. <\/span><\/p>\n

Adapting to Change<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cAs people live longer, they\u2019re realizing that retirement is not a destination, it\u2019s a transition and a time of new beginnings,\u201d said Dorian Mintzer, a retirement coach and coauthor of <\/span>The Couple’s Retirement Puzzle: 10 Must-Have Conversations for Creating an Amazing New Life Together<\/span><\/i> (2014). \u201cIt can be a time to rewire, rejuvenate and revolutionize.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Longer lives may lead more people to follow unconventional paths, like that of Jim and Lynda McDevitt of Plano, TX. Now in their early 70s, they\u2019ve pivoted twice in the last two decades. After retiring in the early 2000s from long careers with the Internal Revenue Service, the couple opened a neighborhood wine shop called Corner Wines\u2014and loved it. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe liked to say, \u2018We\u2019re like Cheers,\u2019 because the shop was a place where everybody knew your name,\u201d Lynda McDevitt said. \u201cMost of the friends we have now, we made at our store.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, the shop\u2019s six-days-a-week schedule began to take a physical toll, and the couple wanted to spend more time with their granddaughter. They sold Corner Wines in 2020. Now they call themselves \u201cofficially retired\u201d but continue to stay engaged, providing occasional consulting services and leading \u201cwine-themed\u201d group tours to places like Tuscany and Napa Valley. <\/span><\/p>\n

Self-confidence is the key to success when you start a new career or any other new endeavor.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe had such a passion for wine, we couldn\u2019t let it go,\u201d Lynda McDevitt said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Several factors made the McDevitts\u2019 later-in-life transition possible. Both enjoy good health. Pensions from their IRS careers provided a financial base. Wine was their passion, but they\u2019d honed practical skills while at the IRS: the basics of accounting, managing and marketing a business. Both had work experiences that gave them the confidence to start something new: Jim had presented proposals to top officials at the IRS; Lynda had fielded media interviews as an IRS spokesperson. <\/span><\/p>\n

That type of confidence is key in embarking on any new career or endeavor, Evans said. Even though he had worked in a very different field before he became a nurse, basic skills\u2014like computer proficiency\u2014buoyed his confidence to tackle the next phase. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cComputer literacy was a big part of being able to jump back into college in my late 50s, to be able to function and graduate,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t really stay in the game if you can\u2019t work at a computer at least at a minimum level.\u201d Former co-workers in his previous career who didn\u2019t embrace the computer and internet have had more difficulty adapting, he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Along with confidence, a new start takes humility. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAssuming the role of novice required … swallowing my pride,\u201d Evans said. That was humbling but necessary to learn the skills to serve patients.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finding Purpose<\/b><\/p>\n

In filming her 2022 documentary <\/span>Lives Well Lived: Celebrating the Secrets, Wit & Wisdom of Age<\/span><\/i>, which aired on PBS, filmmaker Sky Bergman chose interviewees, ages 75 and up, who were resilient, active and engaged\u2014and discovered that all shared a common trait. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone had a sense of purpose,\u201d said Bergman, who is professor emeritus of photography and video at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, CA. \u201cThat purpose could change over time, and often did change over time, but that was the common thread.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A health scare in 2003 helped Mellanie True Hills, 71, of Greenwood, TX, identify her next purpose. She developed a heart blockage, followed by atrial fibrillation (\u201cafib\u201d), which caused her heart to race. Surgery corrected the problem, but at the time, patients had little access to reliable information about afib. After Hills retired from her corporate job, she created a website, StopAfib.org, and began organizing annual patient conferences featuring experts. <\/span><\/p>\n

Skills developed over her long career in IT, web development and accounting all came to her aid. But Hills also credits her thirst for knowledge and her lifelong learning habit. <\/span><\/p>\n

When you start something new, don\u2019t be afraid to change or to take a risk.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWhen I was young, I had a boss who said, \u2018Mellanie finds a vacuum and fills it,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThat is the mindset you need to have to start something new. You see a need and you fill it. It\u2019s also a matter of not being afraid to change. That is hard for some older adults. Not being afraid to take a risk. Risk is the price you pay for opportunity.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Jan Gero pushes himself to keep taking risks artistically at the age of 90. After five previous careers\u2014architect, modern dancer, fashion designer, documentary filmmaker and artist\u2014he has reinvented himself as a monologist. Recently, he performed a one-man show, <\/span>Naked at 90: An Evening with Jan Gero<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

His daily life is solitary, which he prefers, but he shares a video journal online and hosts <\/span>The Compulsive New Yorker<\/span><\/i>, a public access cable show from his apartment in New York. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m basically just saying what\u2019s on my mind,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of what I\u2019m doing is trying to come to terms with death, because it’s a finality, a biological reality. Every day, I’m kind of asking myself the question, \u2018Am I on the path to going down with a smile, rather than a sneer?\u2019\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Envisioning the Extra Years<\/b><\/p>\n

Jerry Cahn, an executive coach in New York, recently launched a workshop titled, \u201cAge Brilliantly: Maximize Your Ability to Lead a Fulfilling 100+ Year Life.\u201d It\u2019s not just for executives approaching retirement, however. <\/span><\/p>\n

The 30 \u201cextra\u201d years that many will enjoy shouldn\u2019t be viewed as tacked on at the end of life, he said. Those years might be devoted to sabbaticals at any age, to provide breathing space for creative growth. Cahn cited a young professional who left one high-pressure job but postponed the start of his next job to devote four months to travel, including visits to Mount Everest, Nepal and the Camino de Santiago in Spain. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cahn added that many executives meticulously plan their finances for retirement and later life but head into their post-career years with vague plans, such as, \u201cI\u2019d like to travel.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat might mean traveling six or seven weeks out of the year,\u201d he said. \u201cBut what about the other 45 weeks? They don\u2019t tend to think about that.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Mary \u201cMolly\u201d Camp, MD, assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said more and more of her patients want to talk about how they\u2019ll handle retirement and the second half of life.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Young people might seek help for transitions\u2014a guidance counselor when choosing a college or a therapist for premarital counseling. But there\u2019s little to guide middle-aged or older people to prepare for the later transitions in life. Camp hopes that\u2019s beginning to change.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re evolving in our knowledge of human development, where we don’t think of adulthood as something you reach and then it plateaus and stays the same,\u201d she said. \u201cInstead, we\u2019re understanding that life changes through lots of different phases, lots of different transitions, including career changes and retirement. It’s not that we turn 55 and everything becomes static.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Yet Another Chapter <\/b><\/p>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic forced Bob Evans to pivot again in 2020. His age and health issues made it too risky for him to work around COVID patients. He left nursing with plans to eventually return\u2014then discovered that he enjoyed retirement. His wife, an IT recruiter, still works from their home in the Cleveland area, so Evans, 68, handles the household duties, including maintaining their large, landscaped yard, and volunteers with the Cleveland Hiking Club, helping to build a new pavilion at a local park. He looks in often on his father, who\u2019s 93 and lives nearby. He\u2019s developed an interest in family history. <\/span><\/p>\n

Just in case, he also keeps his nursing license up-to-date. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure what the next chapter is going to be,\u201d he said, \u201cBut that\u2019s the fun part.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Bob Evans lost his job in 2009, he began to consider what was next. He\u2019d spent more than 30 years in the horticulture industry, mostly in sales and customer service positions in landscaping and lawn care.  His wife reminded…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Making the Most of the \u2018Extra 30\u2019<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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