For many, age brings up fierce resistance. We hide the fading of youth with hair dye and facelifts. We no longer have sleeveless tops in our closets. I do not judge that. I sought those “fixes” too. Until it occurred to me that acceptance of myself was at stake and up for grabs.

As this video of the Modern Elder Academy campus suggests, we’re blessed with obvious beauty. But, my favorite thing about the campus is the sense of discovery you experience when you find a hidden treasure. If you haven’t been, ask our alums on our Modern Elder Academy Facebook group about their favorite spots. Here are my hidden treasures:

You can’t be a writer if you don’t write. You can’t be a surfer if you don’t surf. You can’t be a gardener if you don’t garden. Call it cosmic grammar—the magic lies in verbs. All of which begs the question:

Speaker Jim Rohn says, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” In mathematical terms, you’d say you are the “mean” of these people, which appropriately leads to my two pieces of wisdom on the subject: 1) don’t hang out with mean people or those who don’t appreciate the human spirit; and (2) choose good friends who are wholly different than you.

In the Appendix of “Wisdom@Work: The Making of a Modern Elder,” I list my top 10 books on aging, wisdom and longevity, but I’ve read a bunch more since the book launched a year ago. Here’s my top 5 of the past year:

In our fast-changing world, it’s no surprise that even death has taken on a whole new reality. You might say death is being reinvented from the ground up—call it Dying 2.0. The facts speak for themselves. Since the 1900’s we have more than doubled our lifespan, adding almost 35 years to our lives. While exciting and re-energizing, it is stunning to watch as society does little to prepare for this new shift in reality.

What do you know now that you wish you’d known ten years ago? That’s a powerful prep question for you to imagine what you might need to know in a decade that you could learn now. For example, given that our MEA beachfront campus is in Mexico and I have a home here, I’m finally learning Spanish (yes, I was that odd kid in LA who studied French, which did have one collateral benefit; 8 years after high school, I chose a sexy, unique French name for my boutique hotel company, Joie de Vivre).

It’s hard to be wise and worried at the same time. Almost all anxiety can be traced to two sources: ambiguity and a perceived lack of influence. I’ve found when anxiety strikes, I create a balance sheet of what I know and what I can influence. Anxiety lurks in the dark, so this balance sheet acts as an illuminating flashlight.

Before you head to Kentucky for your new life as a whiskey connoisseur, I’m talking about distilling wisdom. It’s a simple recipe: Wisdom is knowledge distilled. And as we move from the age of “knowledge workers” to “wisdom workers,” it’s required that we each learn how to mine our own special brand of moonshine.

I was honored to be the finale speaker at the annual TEDxMarin a couple months ago. The video was just published and offers answers to some of the following provocative questions: What are the three 20th century life stage inventions and why hasn’t midlife been given the same public policy attention as the other two?