Aging well...because a future of great fulfillment is available at any age, beginning today!
When I was young – 10, 12, 14 etc. – I loved the birthday that told me that I was older. It was always a time of great cheer and I received presents just by adding days to my life. Imagine?! Then I reached an age when I didn’t think it was so much fun anymore. I worried as I passed 40 whether I was going to still be as cute as I was. I seemed to have to go to the doctor more often and he (rarely a “she” back then) appeared to be concerned about tests and he asked me questions that had never been considered before. I became concerned about “getting older.” I no longer greeted my birthdays with the same exuberance.
It wasn’t that I dreaded them but I had definitely lost my childlike wonder in the rites of passage. On my 50th birthday, I had a couple of friends (younger than me naturally), who were determined that I celebrate this milestone in some way even though I was reluctant to do so. They offered their help, wouldn’t take no for an answer and I gave a big party. I invited everyone I knew and I asked all that came to bring something that reminded them of the first time that they met me.
The gifts were sensational and we all laughed a whole lot. The party was a huge success and friends from one community met folks from another, who they might not have met had they not come to cheer me on. I learned a lot that night about how wonderful it is to age well and I like to think that I’ve done it well ever since and will continue to do it as long as I’m here.
During the course of the last two-plus decades, I’ve been president of the Women’s Business Center of Washington, D.C., served in executive positions in a number of other organizations, had my own consulting businesses and most recently been a coach, speaker, and workshop leader. I moved from Washington, D.C. in 2006 to Jacksonville, Florida, because I wanted to live near the Atlantic Ocean. I picked up stakes without knowing a soul and followed my dream.
Even though it’s true that some of my coaching clients continued to confer over the phone and I have maintained connections with family and friends all over the country, I am as determined now in my 70’s to live the life I choose as I was when I was 10 or 12. Picking up and moving like that at 69 meant I tested my own coaching on myself! I made friends and created a wonderful life for myself here in Jacksonville, Florida at a time in my life when most would assume it impossible. A future of great fulfillment really is available at any age!
The point of this background story is that I know first-hand what it means to age well because through trial and error, I’ve done it. I want you to do it too. We all mean to take the right actions for our health and well-being but sometimes we need more. I’m a big advocate of coaching. It’s the support, encouragement and direction we can use to live our best life.
I have coached business owners, lawyers, teachers, non-profit leaders and people from all walks of life to increase profits, market themselves, and become happier. I have helped individuals lose weight, exercise more, and play with exuberance. I want more people to love their “present” and look forward to their “future.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.” I invite you to play with me. Contact me at beth@beth-cole.com or by calling 904-373-0376.