Book puts emphasis on upside
WE all age but not all of us age well.
However, author and positive ageing advocate Marcus Riley is looking to change that.
Mr Riley has just released his new book, Booming: A Lifechanging Philosophy for Ageing Well.
“Booming is really about a philosophy for ageing well and that comes from two main drivers,” Mr Riley said.
“One, I believe, as a society, we have a collective responsibility to view ageing more positively and better support older people as they age and, secondly, as individuals we have, I believe, an opportunity to age more successfully.
“That comes down to that individual choice to embrace our longevity and the longer life that we are more than likely going to have.
“To really have a more positive mindset about that and plan for it and really control it so that we get from our ageing journey what we really want from it and enable ourselves to age successfully.”
Mr Riley is the immediate past chairman and current director of the Global Ageing Network, a member of the steering committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People and was recently appointed as the focal point for the Stakeholder Group on Ageing (an agency of the United Nations) for the Asia-pacific region.
“I’ve worked with older people for over 25 years and in that time I’ve really been fortunate to learn a lot from older people and recognise why some people age successfully and really thrive in later life and conversely observe perhaps why some people haven’t aged as successfully,” he said
“There’s been some common reasons which enable some people to age positively and happily and that really comes down to three key things for me which is positivity, that positive outlook each day and the openness to new things and pursing what’s important to us.
“The second one is planning … and to understand what we want from our future and … to tap into what’s important to us, and the third one is maintaining a sense of purpose and different people are going to do different things to derive that sense of purpose.
“For some people it’s remaining in the workplace for as long as they can, for others it’s the role they play in their families that gives them that sense of purpose, others it might be the role they play in the community with different organisations and activities.”
Mr Riley said while it was common to decry the downside of ageing, there were many positives too.
“The first one is time, often as we get older some of the commitments that took up our time in our younger years aren’t there anymore.
“We do have time to use and again that comes back to the importance of planning so that we are spending time on the things we enjoy and are important to us.
“I think the extension to that is knowing ourselves so if we do have that deeper self knowledge then we better understand what other things are important to us, what are our passions and what we want to be devoting time to.
“What are the relationships that we want to be nurturing and that help fuel the way we engage with life and our enjoyment and self-confidence and all those important things.
“I think they’re some of the key advantages of growing older and perhaps also having a network to tap into, whether