Success and Achievement in Old Age – Why You are Never Too Old to Succeed

There are a lot of assumptions and prejudice according to age.  It is assumed that aging occurs in a somewhat linear fashion, and is something guaranteed, however, a careful look around society will show the clear variety of people with different ages, abilities and stamina’s.  Not all people are the same, and no two people age the same either.  Some simple lifestyle changes, eating healthily and living in a moderate fashion can assist one, not only to live until a ripe old age, but to reach such an age gracefully and healthily with full use of their faculties.  The main problem faced by older people however, is the stereotypes that they face.  When the law is so inflexible that it refuses to acknowledge that someone over 65 might actually be quite active and happy working, and that they do not have heart disease and the other things that they are expected to have, it is unfortunate that many individuals might be pushed towards a retirement that they are not entirely ready for.  In fact, the perception that over a certain age a person is ‘past it’ is a hindrance in itself. 

As a person gets older, they may begin to experience more discrimination at work due to these attitudes.  For example, as one woman, in her fifties stated she dare not apply for another job because she claims that she was bullied in her previous role and believes it was due to her age, her manager, she believes, wanted to employ younger workers, so she could pay them less “I actually wanted to help people,” she states as an ex social worker, “but [the manager] would pick on every thing that I did.  The younger employees would often be skiving, having a smoke and gossiping, so I would take their phones, but still, [the manager] seemed determined to find a reason to get me to leave.”  She ended up resigning due to work stress.  It therefore seems apparent that simply paying someone more because they are older, and less because they are younger does not work out as fair, since it can lead to discrimination in itself.  It also encourages employers to get their workers into retirement, which has also been decided for older persons to be at the age of 65.  This leaves potentially, another forty years (or even more if fortunate) for an individual, and yet the assumption is that they are now passed achieving anything.  Can a person be successful and achieve things over the age of 60?  I did some research and found a wealth of research that demonstrates the achievements and successes of the over sixties.