Do you think you are old? Or your parents? That all depends on your definition of old. Only a few generations ago 60 would have been considered old, where people retired, put their feet up in an easy chair in age care retirement home and waited to die. Nowadays 60 year olds are still active in the workplace, participating in extreme sports like skydiving and white water rafting.

Our perception of old has changed as medicine makes great advances at keeping us young. But more importantly, our older Australians don’t feel ‘old’. Age is as much a mental barrier as a physical one.

A great clue to how age can be immaterial, is the achievements of many people in their later years.

• Warren Buffet. Investment guru, age 90. Most successful investor in the world. Has been running companies and trading stocks for over 60 years.
• Betty White, aged 98. Probably more influential now then ever as a cultural figure.
• Client Eastwood, film actor and director, age 905. Traded careers in front of the camera to behind it. Arguably producing the best work of his life in his eighties.
• Rupert Murdoch, aged 89. Media magnate.
• Pierre Cardin, famous fashion designer aged 98.
• Joan Rivers. Died in 2014, aged 81, but never stopped working.

It’s never too late. Others have proved it.

Ever think it’s too late to get started? Maybe the kids are grown up, the house is too big and retirement looks like a comfy rocking chair and afternoon naps.

Stop! Don’t go there. Your older years have much more life in them than that.

As Dylan Thomas once said (or slurred through his whisky), “do not go gently into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

How about everyone’s favourite actor, Morgan Freeman? It seems he’s been around forever but does anyone remember seeing him young in films? Nope. That’s because he got his first major film role at 52.

Phyliss Diller made her stand-up comedy debut at 37, after raising 5 children. She didn’t achieve fame until 1959, at the age of 47. And boy did she make up for lost time, becoming an icon of her generation and one of the greatest comediennes of all time,

Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his first movie role until he was 46. He’s now 71, but looks considerably younger

Kathryn Bigelow is a major Hollywood filmmaker, responsible for films such as Best Picture Oscar winner ‘The Hurt Locker.” She also won best director for that. And it was her first major success. At age 57!

Grandma Moses didn’t begin her painting career until age 76. Possibly her most famous work, Fourth of July, now hangs in the White House and graces a US Postal stamp.

Louise Bourgeois didn’t become a famous artist until she was 7

What are you waiting for?

Glenvale Villas loves to celebrate life, in all its quirky forms. Our philosophy of independence and proactive care ensures that our residents can live as healthily as possible. We don’t wait for ill health to strike before reacting. Instead we continuously monitor the health of each resident and implement a preventative care plan in conjunction with their family, doctor and our Director of Care.

How else are you going to stay young enough to go skydiving!

Doing something keeps you young. So, start writing that book!