Successful Aging

I have always been achievement oriented. As a child I worked hard to get good grades. As an adult I tried to be successful in the many roles I had – student, parent, wife, research scientist, friend, and others.  Perhaps that’s why when I heard about the concept of “Successful Aging” it appealed to me. Now that I am fully along in the aging category, I certainly want to make a success of it.

But what is success in aging? It seems to me that it’s one of the few things that you shouldn’t have to work hard at to be a success… just keep living. No need to cram late at night like I did for school grades, or write research proposals like I did to be a successful research scientist, or make sure my children had their homework done as I needed to do as a parent. I just need to wake up in the morning, and know that if I make it through the day, I had another day of successfully aging.  

But wait—there has been a lot written about successful aging, so there must be more to it than that. Maybe I can learn something to help me be even more successful. Looking through some of the writings on this topic, I found a book on Successful Aging by Rowe and Kahn, and three components were described:

(1) absence of disease and disability— I agree with that. So far I am successful in this component, although  doctors’ visits and medical tests seems to be taking more of my time. But I can keep that up.

(2) high cognitive and physical functioning—“High” is relative, but I do a lot of reading, some writing (like this blog), and can discuss the terrible state of the country with knowledge of the latest outrageous headlines. In terms of physical functioning, I exercise almost every day (ok, maybe 3-4 days/week), and go for long walks several days each week (ok, once or twice).

So far, I’m a big success. That wasn’t hard.

(3) active engagement in life—I think this is a big one, and for me it is my main source of pleasure. In this time of COVID this has been challenging and changing. Visiting family and friends has been replaced by Zoom or Facetime calls. Trips to explore other countries or parts of the US have been reduced to local bus travel to shop for necessities. Enjoying the theater, museums and other entertainment in NYC has turned into Netflix, TV, and on-line shows. 

Does this mean I am a failure in this component of successful aging? No! I have redefined engagement in life as something I can do from my desk chair. That will have to do for now, and hopefully not for too much longer. So I declare I am being successful in this last item too.

But wait—success should also be sustainable. What will happen as I continue to age? I am likely to have diseases or disabilities of aging (and maybe get some that have little to do with aging). My cognitive and physical functioning may decline, as may my engagement in life, especially since it is somewhat dependent on my health and functioning.

Also, since people close to me who I love are getting older too, if they need my assistance I want to help take care of them. This no doubt will reduce the time I can spend on some of those activities that have made me successful in aging so far.

But maybe providing this care for aging others who I care about can also be part of successful aging. Also, while my activities are likely to change over time, for example trips to other countries may have to be taken virtually, I can still find many that are meaningful to me. But I think I will also hold on to my initial idea—that simply being here, every day, and looking forward to a new day doing things I enjoy, will mean that I am mastering successful aging.