Longevity Aging Crisis or Golden Opportunity
[Music]
[Applause]
thank you
have you ever had a passion that pulled
you forward in a way that you couldn’t
explain
my passion is working with older adults
i love hanging out with people in their
80s 90s and 100s and i’ll tell you where
that came from
growing up i lived in a
multi-generational home and my
grandmothers were my best friends
one grandmother was born in england and
she was raised on philadelphia’s main
line she was a sophisticated beauty
queen who’d served tea in the formal
living room and asked me questions about
current events and the books i was
reading
now the other grandmother was a church
secretary from jackson mississippi
and she was as wide as she was tall
and we’d cuddle up on the couch together
and we’d watch soap operas and we’d talk
about the drama of my young life
her tea was sweet tea which was
basically sugar water with a little tea
stirred in
now these vastly different women had one
interesting thing in common
both were tragically widowed in their
50s
and forced to recreate their lives
and they did so living magnificent lives
well into their 90s
and what i didn’t know at the time
is that they were laying a foundation
for my future in a way that i could not
have possibly imagined
now as a young college student my
grandmothers encouraged me to go for my
dreams so i did i wanted to be in the
fashion business
and so i worked for 20 years in all
different aspects of fashion marketing
and it was really fantastic a dream come
true
eventually i landed with a company where
i had an office in la and a showroom in
new york we opened 100 stores around the
united states and 40 markets around the
world
literally it was a dream come true but
after a series of layoffs at my company
my name was called and then i found
myself just like my grandmother’s forced
to recreate my life now at the time my
grandmothers had both died as well as my
parents and i was volunteering for a
local hospice as a way to give back
to the people who so freely gave to my
family
and there was also a friend who was
encouraging me to pursue senior care and
senior living as a career
now i didn’t know that was possible
because i thought it was just for nurses
but i did my investigation and i called
on my grandmother’s resilience spirits
and i dove headfirst
into this brand new career that i didn’t
know anything about
and in my research i found that there’s
over 700 million people globally that
are over the age of 65.
one half million of those people are
over the age of 100
and here in the united states we have 10
000 people
every single day that are turning 65
and by 2050
we will have
one in every five people 20 of our
population will be over the age of 65.
so
i was a trendsetter then now i’m a
trendsetter now
and what’s interesting
is that i found this love in this
passion and this is what i was seeking
this is really what i needed
and so
as i was diving into the senior care
industry
i worked in every aspect of the industry
from assisted living
all the way from hospice from home care
and really was able to pursue and learn
this industry from the ground up
and in my career i’ve had a privilege of
working with over a thousand older
adults
and what’s interesting
is there are some people that are doing
a great job with their longevity you
know what we have is people are retiring
at 65
but they’re now living one two three and
sometimes four decades longer and some
people are doing a great job with it but
other people are really struggling
there’s sort of this ambiguity about
who am i supposed to be and what am i
supposed to do in this time frame
and you hear people say things like i
don’t know why i’m still here
and as our southern friends would say i
don’t know why the good lord hasn’t
taken me yet
and what happens
is they’ll stop living
well before their life is over
and it’s as if modern medicine and
health education have created this new
age stage that is yet to be defined
and so in my work with older adults
i’ve been able to support people and
their families during this time frame
and i don’t see them as little old
ladies
or little old men
i see them as social pioneers that
they’re trailblazing this way for us
that has never existed in human history
and this inspires me
in every aspect of my life
and what i’ve learned from them are six
really important principles that i’d
like to share with you today
and the first of those is purpose
we have to have a purpose as human
beings
every bit of us wants to be a beneficial
presence in the planet we want to know
that our very beingness matters
and i have a client named art
and he moved in reluctantly
very reluctantly into senior living with
his wife and soon after she died
and here was art stuck in the place that
he never wanted to be and he realized
that he needed to find a purpose or else
and this guy decided that he was going
to be a part of the landscaping crew
and so he took on in his scooter
and he took on all the landscaping guys
and he provided beauty for all who walk
the gardens
the next principle
is attitude
a positive and optimistic attitude about
life
dr joe dispenza teaches people to rewire
their brains
so a grumpy old man doesn’t have to stay
that way unless he wants to
and he has that right doesn’t he
so in rewiring our brains we can
actually through meditation and positive
imaging
and future forecasting we can rewire the
neuropathways of our brain
and so as i was looking at senior care
and senior living as a career i started
to think about how i would want to be
treated as an older adult
and the one thing is i never wanted to
be marginalized or patronized as this
little old lady and to have people bend
over and say how you doing sweetie
right
ugh
it’s like i’m an adult
and i started to envision what i wanted
to be
and i like to think that i’m a cool hip
chick and i still am going to be a cool
hip chick no matter what age i am
right
[Music]
[Laughter]
and i even came up with a name for
myself i called myself a goldenista a
fashionista in my golden years and i
like that
and
and it’s taken on this whole sort of
image of who i want to be it gives me
something to aspire to
instead of something to dread this is
that principle of attitude
and the next is lifelong learning
some people believe that the day
that we stop learning is the day that we
start dying
and i’m committed to living every day
to the absolute fullest
i had another client her name was thelma
and she chose her senior living
community
based on its proximity to the university
that had an adult living program
and she was a smart cookie she even
negotiated free transportation
to and from each one of her classes
multiple times per week
because she knew that feeding her mind
was feeding her soul and would feed her
longevity
and the next is advocacy
self-advocacy
in order to live a good life you got to
want to live a good life and you have to
fight for
your right to live a good life as well
i spoke at an industry conference
earlier this year and i started off with
the beastie boys and i was like you’ve
got to fight for your right to party
right
and this is
we have older adults that are living in
their homes and living in communities
and they’re wanting to live their full
lives and that’s what it’s our
obligation to support them in doing so
the best way that we possibly can
and so after advocacy is community
as people
we need people we need each other even
the most introverted of us
and there’s something really beautiful
that’s happening in the senior living
industry
we have amazing innovators that are
doing incredible work one of my mentors
is a woman named jill vitale awesome and
she’s actually created
a beautiful community she runs a
regional senior living organization and
her residence are resident citizens
and these citizens are involved in every
part of the decision making of their
organization wouldn’t you like to live
in a place like that where you actually
had a vote and a say-so
that’s what’s happening
and for those who don’t live in senior
living we only have two million people
in the united states who do
they’re living at home
we need to surround them with all the
things that they want to do to live
their best life possible
and then the very last thing is health
who wants to live a long life if you’re
not going to feel good and you’re not
going to have a healthy life
the mayo clinic did
a really groundbreaking study that said
that 70
of the quality of our aging
is based on our lifestyle choices
what we choose what we do to ourselves
so when our doctors tell us that we need
to eat right and exercise and reduce our
stress and get some sleep they know what
they’re talking about
only 30 percent of the quality of our
aging
is genetic
so that says that if we want a higher
quality of life
in our later life we need to get busy
taking care of ourselves today
and i’d be remiss if i did not mention
our financial health our mental health
and our spiritual health
all of those are needed in order to live
a really great
longevity lifestyle
so it’s purpose
and attitude
learning
advocacy
community and health
and so in our youth obsessed culture
i’m acutely aware that i’m aging and i’m
glad
about that i’m actually glad to be
getting older
because the advertisers have taught us
that aging is bad and somehow that
anti-aging is possible
the only way that anti-aging is possible
is if we die
and i kind of like my life right now and
i’m actually pretty proud that i have
survived 55 years on the planet aren’t
you proud of yourselves too
it’s like life gets tough sometimes
and so with anything that happens in
life we have to ask ourselves why am i
in this position why is this happening
to me and what is my role here
and the answer that i got for myself is
that i needed to build the community
that i craved
now what does that mean
that’s when i’m an older adult i want to
be surrounded with other really cool
older adults too
so we actually formed the golden easter
social club and up until now it’s been a
secret society so don’t tell anyone
but
in this secret society we’re bringing
all of our gifts skills and talents to
each other to help brainstorm what later
life will look like
and so i’m going to leave you with three
three things here today the first of
those is to take the principles
and really take some intentional time
for yourself and look and see
how you’re doing right
to use today as a checkpoint in your
life
and then really see what is it that you
can do
or change
in order to set yourself up in a way
that for your future self is going to
thank you
and the last thing that i’ll leave you
with is go hug your grandma
you know
go hug your grandma or any older adult
in your life
let them know
that you need them as much as they need
you and even in the midst of your busy
life
that you will take time to make sure
that they know that they’re important
valued and valuable
and i’ll leave you with one last thing
you’re valuable too
peace and blessings
thank you