Part 6
The Best of Your Life for the Rest of Your Life
Living Your Dream After Fifty
I asked Lou Butler, a former 3M engineer who has been retired for over 20 years, what advice he would give someone retiring today?” He said. “Have a hobby. The people I worked with that didn’t have an interest outside of work had the most difficulty in retirement. Having a hobby causes you to become more creative. You find other talents that you did not use at work and it keeps your mind alive.” I know that Lou practices what he preaches because we served on a committee together and I’ve participated in some discussion groups with him at our church. Eighty years old and as sharp and mentally alert as a much younger man.
I was reminded of of another eighty year old I met at a 4th of July party last week. Joe was flirting 
with Patricia so I went over to join their conversation. Naturally, I interviewed him when I found out how old he was. He was spry and an interesting conversationalist. “What advice would you give?” I asked. “Keep active and have a positive attitude.”
Over and over I’m hearing the same advice from the “successful” over-50 year olds.
It reminds me of the lyrics to an old Frankie Laine song “I’m Gonna Live Till I Die.”
These people are telling me that having something they deem to be worthwhile is the thing that keeps them young.
They are actively involved in their lives and are not afraid to take risks.
As Patricia and I have been doing quite a bit of traveling the past few fears we’ve been meeting a lot of adventurous people who are not content to sit at home waiting for life to be over. They are active and unafraid.
They serve as perfect models for us. Many of them have their own “Bucket List” and are sucking every drop out of life that they can.
Let’s go out and courageously embrace the challenge of living.
Success thought for today:
“It costs so much to be a full human being that there are very few who have the enlightenment, or the courage, to pay the price… One has to abandon altogether the search for security, and reach out to the risk of living with both arms. One has to embrace the world like a lover, and yet demand no easy return of love. One has to accept pain as a condition of existence. One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing. One needs a will stubborn in conflict, but apt always to the total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying.”
-Morris West
Byron
www.byronethompson.com
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