The Art of Aging: growing older with dignity

Honestly, even when my #lifeworktrailbalance works well, I am tied into many tasks and commitments. Family, work and sport take time and energy. Living in the present is valuable, and few things matter more than mindfulness in balancing success with burnout or “run-out”, and acting purposefully yet empathetically in society.

Still, we sometimes need to look further into the future.

Future questions should, and must, concern us today. My tax adviser recently asked things nobody likes hearing. What happens to my company if I become seriously ill? What happens if I withdraw, or have to? How well am I meeting the last of an entrepreneur’s seven key responsibilities: planning succession to ensure the company continues?

I can tell myself I am only 37, with decades of activity and productivity ahead. But not everything is predictable. My friend Werner was suddenly taken from life too.

Nobody particularly likes facing their own mortality.

By coincidence, this very subject came up during a recent long run. I listen to many audiobooks, including Blinkist, an app I warmly recommend. Its team condenses key ideas from nonfiction books into 15-minute written and audio summaries, offering a broad overview of many subjects. As I ran, I heard the summary of Wilhelm Schmid’s “Gelassenheit”, with these thoughts:

We need an art of ageing with dignity, rather than anti-ageing. Yet today’s society is so focused on performance that ageing sometimes becomes a sad appendix to working life: boring end credits after “real life”.

It occupied my mind for the remaining kilometres. What did this mean for my #lifeworktrailbalance?

@life: My children sharpen my perspective and make me consider things that will matter in 20 or 30 years. I want to remain physically capable of running, hiking and climbing with Anna and Anton then.

@work: As mentioned in my last post, my vision is for the company to act usefully and sustainably: contributing as a small business to major infrastructure projects, investing profits in employees’ security and development, and dedicating what remains to good causes.

@trail: I am still very performance-focused because I feel I can and want to improve. But I do not want to run myself into the ground. I want to enjoy nature with my children with dignity in those supposed “boring end credits”.

A 71-year-old ultra runner offers a role model. Josef Kladensky has completed nearly 200 marathons and ultras over 40 years, including UTMB, Grand Raid on Réunion, Badwater, Spartathlon and Mozart100. He is a regular at Veitsch and Ötscher, usually on or near his age-group podium. His book is now available to preorder, and I am looking forward to it. I expect to benefit from his experience and insights.

I have secured my copy. I hope you will too: www.startnext.com/soweitsogut

Ageing with dignity sounds easy and may be among life’s hardest tasks. Our future begins afresh every day and demands attention. Engaging with it is simply smarter.