I don’t know why majority people feel that getting older is a big deal. I feel, aging gracefully is an art, scientifically every living being starts growing older someday. Some people start looking better as they grow older: they look contented, buoyant and mature. Men and women who carry their age tag gracefully are welcome everywhere. I have seen people who enjoy each second of aging. As, women start getting older, the age starts showing on their neck and hands though age on face can be hidden for few years. Men can easily hide their age for few more years compared to women.

Our society does not talk positive about aging; it talks everything negative about getting older. About loneliness, about illness, about losing financial independence each facet is painted negatively with melodrama. But, if you open your eyes and look around, people in their sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties also lead a happy life by keeping themselves busy, peppier and creative. Of course, aging gracefully isn’t easy always, but attitude matters a lot say a lot of researchers. In human life cycle, maturity and decline cannot be deleted. There’s nothing one can do; the clock will keep ticking. Age is just a number.

Accepting to age gracefully begins when people learn to embrace their age; well, they can still strive to look and feel their best. Some great personalities in society are role models; they have aged with grace which encourages future generations about the many possibilities of life after 50 or 60. They say, life begins at 50/60/70 when individuals start a new career or business, travel, adventure, continue a hobby, meeting up friends, widening social circle, meditation and spirituality….oh there are so many things to do. Empowering one is a lovely signs of graceful aging. A person can definitely age with dignity. I think, one needs to incorporate healthy lifestyle habits at early age, at the right time: plenty of rest and good water intake, healthy diet, regular exercise etc. But, the fact is one needs to understand the deeper meaning of aging gracefully. Graceful aging means being practical. Acceptance is at the core of healthy aging. Setting realistic goals is a top priority, else a person starts lacking the confidence. It’s important to stay focused on the present, be true to the person you are today. Live in the moment.  Worrying about the future or imagining circumstances negatively causes the uncalled stress and anxiety. Have gratitude for all that you have in life. Remain grateful for this day, live each moment in the best manner. All too often, we contribute in negative self-talk that results in a feeling of shortage. Focus on forgiving, accepting and loving yourself. Kindle the little child in you.

Most importantly, accept the ‘salt n pepper’ colour of hair. Stop dying your hair. Most men and women with salt-n-pepper hair look great, they spontaneously prove that they enjoy being older! Irrespective of the length or the style people with shades of gray and black hair can adapt, blend and have a lifestyle of their own. They care a damn for what people think about their age. Realistic age gives an authentic look to a person.

It’s time to live life that resounds with your inner being. When you discover your authentic self, material things automatically lose their value and people see the real you. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.” Let your inner beauty shine.

Learn to laugh, let go of those petty things. Drop your inner and outer baggage. Get creative.  Enjoy meditation because meditation helps you to relax physically and mentally, putting aside the day’s worries and enjoying in the moment. It also keeps you spiritually centered and connected throughout the day. Find your passion. Our busy lives keep us from pursuing our passions. I trust aging gracefully comes from your inner being. Be healthy. Try as much as possible to stay fit. Good health guarantees natural beauty. Build on your relationship. Invest in healthy, truthful relations in life. You cannot lead a lonely life in vacuum. Have a healthy social life. Finally, when we are mindful of the blessings in our lives, we invite more of the same.

Is there a certain age at which maturity sets in a person? No. Is there a specific look to specify ripeness? Obviously not. Do academic degrees add to maturity? No. Does social status help measuring a person’s maturity? No way.  Are successful people more matured? Yes, they are. Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook in 2004 at the age of 19, literally changing the way people communicate. Mark Zuckerberg had a radically new idea and he did not shy away from investing time and effort in it, he hardly knew if it would work. Facebook has changed the way people communicate. In my personal experiences, I have witnessed that age has little or nothing to do with being mature or immature. Some young children are mature; they take on responsibilities far better than older folks. And, I have observed older folks who behave childish and silly, only being concerned about themselves.

Demographers have traditionally relied on chronological age in studies of aging, but deep research on the topic suggests that it is only a number – what really matters is the physical and mental health. Perceived age is more important than your date of birth.

Colonel Sanders was well over 60 when he made it big with Kentucky Fried Chicken. Before that, he simply sold chicken and other food at a service station in Corbin, Kentucky. When the Interstate 75 (which is a major Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States) was built, it diverted all traffic away from his restaurant and his business was close to failing. Yet Sanders believed that he still had not lost it, and the business required some fresh chances. Instead of despairing or disorganizing through somehow, he adapted new methods. He walked the long miles, pitching his unique recipe and was even knocked back 1009 times before someone decided to give him a chance to birth what is now known today as the highly successful food chain KFC.

We are always growing and learning as human beings, all of us feel guilty about many of our behaviors or acts, we fear rejection, we fear failures, we feel jealous, we hate and I am sure that when we learn to support ourselves, we become independent emotionally and materially, and unknowingly we make fast spiritual progress too.

Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who is the founder of the Hare Krishna movement was 69 years old before he started the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON).  Prabhupada had been a chemist and a Sanskrit scholar in Calcutta, but in 1965 he came to New York City with just fifty bucks, a pair of cymbals, and a desire to spread the teachings of Lord Krishna.  Bhaktivedanta Swami spent much of the last decade of his life setting up the institution of ISKCON. Since he was the Society’s leader, his personality and skills were responsible for much of ISKCON’s growth and the reach of his mission. It is worth noting that when it was suggested to him at the time of founding the ISKCON in 1966 that a broader term “God Consciousness” would be preferable to “Krishna Consciousness” in the title, he rejected this recommendation, suggesting that the name Krishna includes all other forms and concepts of God. After he had a group of followers in New York another center was started in San Francisco in 1967. From there he traveled throughout America with his disciples, popularizing the movement through street chanting (sankirtana)), book distribution and public speeches. Once he started the movement, there was no looking back.  By 1977, he had a strong following.

Each person has a different level of emotional maturity; it is something one can work on continuously. Flexibility is a sign of maturity it means one can see each situation as unique and is capable to adapt his/her style accordingly. Another sign of maturity is when people take responsibility for their own life for all good, bad and ugly. They understand that their right or wrong actions and decisions are responsible for their situations. When things go wrong, they do not rush to blame others. They are capable of identifying and doing things differently.  We don’t have answers for all problems, but we can identify the problem, and research the best way to device solution.

David Karp relied on the internet as a source of income, where he launched Tumblr at the age of 21. Like Zuckerberg, he had a revolutionary idea. He had been looking into tumble logs – very short blogs – before and thought a platform to promote these systematically could be successful. It turned out, he was right. To this date, Tumblr hosts over 100 million blogs making David Karp’s net worth more than $200 Million.

We all feel that people are creative during their youthful years; but the fact is that creativity does not decline with age for any natural, biological reason. Creativity is, it seems, just as strong in a child as it is in adults, not matter the age. The difference is not in creative ability, but in how those abilities are utilized.

You don’t have to start early to become the richest man in the world. Takichiro Mori was an economics professor until he left academia at age 55 to become a real estate investor in 1959. Mori had inherited a couple of buildings from his father, and he jumped headfirst into Tokyo’s real estate scene. Mori started his second career by investing in the Minato ward where he spent his childhood, and within a matter of years he was presiding over Japan’s real estate boom. Do you know, when Mori died in 1993, he was Forbes’ two-time reigning world’s richest man with a net worth of around $13 billion. He was considered Japanese Warren Buffet, though. Mori never seemed totally comfortable with the fame and fortune his second career won him. He dressed traditionally, abstained from alcohol, and lived a fairly modest life.

Creativity is the ability to think of new and novel ideas, as long as we have the drive to pursue those ideas, there is very little that can prevent us from doing so. To meet the challenges of tomorrow, one needs to learn and development today. One needs to have a desire to learn and a thirst for knowledge. Learning is indeed sign of maturity. The way things are done can always be improved. Successful people tackle setbacks and disappointments gracefully. Their emotional maturity helps them to express their feelings, identify the actions and move on with life.

Peter Roget showed us that it is never too late to make earth-shattering inventions, such as the Thesaurus, which he invented at age 73. He actually used what most people would see as character flaws or issues to his success. Suffering from OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) the only thing that would calm him down was making random lists. In the end, he simply started on the infinite project of creating a list of synonymous words. Peter Roget’s ‘Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases’ has never been out of print since its introduction in market.

By the age of five, we innovate many new things, and our minds are very fertile. Children can do wonders. They need to be given their space that’s about it. In December 2010, a new mobile game app called “Bubble Ball” was launched on the Apple app store. In its first two weeks it received more than 1 million downloads, surpassing “Angry Birds” as the most downloaded free game from Apple. This game was built entirely by Robert Nay, a 14-year-old with no previous coding experience. According to CNN, Nay learned everything he needed to know through research at the public library, and produced 4,000 lines of code for his physics-based puzzle game in just one month. The teen entrepreneur’s company, Nay Games, released 24 new levels for “Bubble Ball” in August 2013.

Samuel Ullman – The great American humanitarian said it aptly: “nobody grows old merely living by number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideas. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul”.

Medical practitioners have dispensed with the value of chronological age as a variable to use in research. We get bogged down with our chronological age – feeling younger or older. Well, another drawback of the chronological age is that it cannot be experimentally manipulated. And, why should anyone do that?

When life touches fifty, for some, working on a same project or job for too many years becomes wearisome, for others mundane activities are boring, while for some restless souls retirement just isn’t an option. And for few, inspiration hits them late in life. What do we call these people? Seasoned, experienced, mature, established, old, aged, older, too old – these are people to be correctly tagged as “Late Bloomers.”  The Wikipedia describes them as “a people whose talents or capabilities are developed at a later stage in life”. But whatever you do, don’t call them old. These entrepreneurs, scientists, artists, creative lot of people waited until after 50 to start their art/business/hobby/passion, and they’re adding gold to their golden years.

Late, Captain Krishnan Nair, who set up the first Leela Hotel, The Leela Kempinski in Mumbai, did it at the age of 65. He then said “I still feel that I am a beginner and have yet to learn a lot.” Actor Boman Irani entered the filmdom at 44. He once said in his interview “I have been a late bloomer in every aspect of my life. Earlier, I had got into photography at 32-33. I didn’t expect cinema to take on my life,” Irani, caught people’s attention with his role in Munnabhai MBBS. Peter Roget published his giant list of words as a book, Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases at age 73. Perhaps the oldest known athlete to win an Olympic medal was a Swedish shooter by the name of Oscar Swahn who had two medals won in the Summer Olympics when he was 72 years old. Corporate guru and author Gurcharan Das took up writing as his principal occupation in his 50’s. Col. Harland Sanders who is famous for Kentucky-fried Chicken got success when he was 65.

Can accomplishment and meaningfulness in life be attached to age? The answer obviously is “No.” And what’s life when you look back and deeply regret of not having done things which you wanted to. The reasons for not doing things which you wanted to could be many. Sometimes genuine, while other times it could be fear of failure. Fear of losing some valued thing in life. These days when the life spans are growing longer, that means we are living longer than ever, what is the rush of achieving everything when you are young?  When you do things which you enjoy the most, which are truly creative, it makes you fresh, bouncy and gives you exuberance and energy.

I think that it is never too late to begin doing things which you wanted to at the (so-called) old age. Sometime in your life, at whatever age you are put yourself at the top of your list, prioritize, and do what you’ve always wanted to do. No matter if you’re in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, or beyond, you still have an opening, a chance to do what you wanted to do. Becoming successful does not have an age bar. It is not limited to one certain age or even one career. Instead of getting bored, feeling left out, feeling lonely in the race of life try to re-invent you. Give yourself some valued time, love yourself, and revive your interest. The most successful people are the ones who have reinvented themselves, tried, failed, and tried again. Let’s redefine the word failure as simply a plan that didn’t work the first time around. It may just need a few twists, tweaks and determination.

Another point of view is that of specialization; it is some sort of compulsion. People usually have many interests and passions. Why should we get trapped in the “specialization” format? Why should we kill our curiosity and astonishment? Let’s not get disparaged by some specialization in life. You might have too many hobbies, interests to settle in life. Go out, discover, experiment, give your life some more chances and just ENJOY every single moment of your life. Make your mantra “Better late than never.”