Chip Conley

In the U.S., most of us are familiar with how Social Security, 401k plans, and company pension plans help us save for retirement. Many of us may also be familiar with 529 plans, a tax-advantaged investment vehicle designed to encourage saving for future higher education expenses for one’s children or other beneficiaries.

This post’s name is the same as a recent TED Radio Hour podcast focusing on how we can bring what's been dormant back to life, more than a year into the Covid crisis. All the featured speakers are amazing, but I think you’ll find psychologist Guy Winch’s recommendations particularly prescriptive and valuable as we try to find new footing in this new normal.

Retirement is to regeneration what recreation is to re-creation. Sixty years ago upon their advent, retirement communities promised endless leisure in an age-apartheid gated neighborhood with your home facing a fairway. Today, regenerative communities are offering programs that help you repurpose yourself in intergenerational villages with your home facing a farm.

British playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard wrote, “Every exit is an entry somewhere else.” In Spanish, “my success” translates as “mi exito,” which sounds a lot (in English) like my success is my exit. Makes sense to me. After all, how we end things influences how we begin something else.

One of our revelations at MEA has been the pattern consistency of transitions. They often start with the end of something, move to the often-awkward liminal period, and then crescendo with a new beginning. Once you understand those three phases, you can witness your life as a series of transitional episodes and, with some experience, you can plot out a roadmap that gets you through that messy middle.

I’ve been reading academic Dr. Dilip Jeste’s recent book, “Wiser: The Scientific Roots of Wisdom, Compassion, and What Makes Us Good.” In his book, he offers the reader one particular study that gives evidence that wisdom is more correlated with spirituality than it is with intelligence.

Victoria Labalme explains in her book “Risk Forward: Embrace the Unknown and Unlock your Hidden Genius:“In each of our lives at various points along the way, we find ourselves in the Fog of Not Knowing—a period of transition, when the path, the plan, or the project is not yet clear. This period in between—whether for minutes or for months—is to be respected and honored; it is fertile and full of promise. If you can meet this void without grasping for the most convenient way out, what you discover will be beyond your expectations and imagination.

Let’s add “cantankerous” to that list while we’re at it. And, yes, I know that’s how many Americans describe people 60 and older. But, it’s just not my experience. There’s ample evidence showing that our EQ grows with age as does our emotional moderation and ability to empathize.

In the course of three days, two well-known NY Times Op-Ed columnists recently wrote columns that sounded like they were written on the beach in front of MEA’s campus. David Brooks pondered the value of wisdom and deep listening, Wisdom Isn’t What You Think It Is.

If you read this recent post, you know I’m in love with actress Frances McDormand. But, then I came upon this interview with Katie Couric on aging and I really appreciated the last few seconds of it when she suggests our face represents the wisdom of our experience, the map of our life. Enjoy it. Good luck, Frances, tonight with the Academy Awards!