AKS
August 4, 2026
AKS
“Aging is an amazing gift of time.” Our lifespans have extended 30 years since 1900 which makes retirement last one-fourth to one-third of our lives. In his interview on Mel Robbins’ podcast, Dr. Joseph Coughlin from MIT’s AgeLab discussed how to better prepare for aging.
Three questions Dr. Coughlin says to ask yourself:
How are you going to get an ice cream cone? This is more complicated than it sounds. First, you need to identify the things that make you happy and usually they are the smaller things, not the larger ones. Second, transportation is often overlooked in a senior’s life. If we live where we cannot get to things easily and have to rely on others, it just is harder and more frustrating.
What are you going to do on a Tuesday at 10:30? When we retire, we lose the structure and identity built into working life. Unfortunately, the elderly spend a great deal of time watching tv, not because it is what they want to do but because they either don’t have the energy or desire to do anything else. When this happens, we are not living our best lives. Dr. Coughlin also discussed how your social connections are so important – you need friends who support you overall in order to be healthy. As you get older, there is a “natural attrition to friendship” – not only do you lose friends to death, but you lose them when you leave work, when you move, when they switch time spent with you to spending time with their grandkids. Not having regular meaningful connections reduces our quality of life and can negatively impact our health, so it is important to intentionally nurture and grow your alliances.
Who’s going to change your lightbulbs? Things you take for granted that you can do any day will become harder over time. My husband hurt his back a month ago and it has altered a lot of our plans – including travel and camping – because he is not able to walk as far or lift as much as he could just four weeks ago. Hopefully this is just temporary, and he will recover soon, but as we age, we will not be able to do all the things we can easily do today. We must be realistic and have a support plan in place before we get to this point. And most importantly, we need to be able to ask for help.
In Retirement Voices: Stories of Reinvention, Purpose, and Possibilities, I wrote a chapter entitled “I Don’t Want to Be a Burden,” where I discussed how important it is to begin sharing your hopes and dreams today so that it doesn’t come as an inconvenient surprise later. We need to have many conversations with our loved ones, hopefully long before a crisis drives us into decision mode without us knowing what every party desires. Circumstances and needs change over time and we cannot bury our head in the sand, hoping things will improve, especially if no action is taken to make it better.
In my next blog, I will discuss the eight dimensions of aging that Dr. Coughlin covered and how they relate to retirement.
Be curious. Be kind.
Ann
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Mel Robbins Podcast – MIT Longevity Expert: Do These 3 Things Now to Stay Young, Live Longer, & Keep Doing What You Love with Dr. Joseph Coughlin; Episode 419
And check out this recently published book from the Retirement Coaches Association. I wrote the chapter on how not to be a burden as you age. The book is available on Kindle for 99 cents and in paperback for $7.95. On Saturday, it will go up to $9.95 so get it today at a discount!
Retirement Voices: Stories of Reinvention, Purpose, and Possibilities, Retirement Coaches Association.
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”
Jon Kabat-Zinn