Growing Older Living Bolder is a new way to think about aging.

Society is constantly telling us that younger is better and aging is a bad thing. On this episode of the Camp Codger podcast, Carl Honoré, author of Bolder: Making the Most of Our Longer Lives, shares a different view of getting older. He envisions a much bolder approach to aging that involves optimism, joy, and vigor.

Carl Honoré is a journalist who lives in London, and he gained international fame almost two decades ago with his best-selling book called In Praise of Slow about slowing down the pace of contemporary society. But now the hosts of Camp Codger talk to Carl about his latest book called Bolder: Making the Most of Our Longer Lives, which advocates for a new way to look at what’s possible and permissible in our “golden years.”

We Are All Growing Older Every Day

All of us are growing older every day. But according to Carl Honoré, we are living longer and better than at any time in human history. So why are there so many negative stereotypes about growing older? Why do we assume that aging is a bad thing? And why isn’t “growing older living bolder” the way we look at life?

“I think the central myth about aging is that it’s all bad,” says Carl Honoré on this episode of the Camp Codger podcast. “We tend to think of aging as a downward spiral. After a certain age, everything in our lives gets worse. We become less productive, less attractive, less curious–just less of ourselves. It tells a ‘chamber of horrors’ view of later life, which I think weighs all of us down.”

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Growing Older, Living Bolder

The way Carl Honoré looks at things, the time has come to cast off prejudices and to blur the lines of what is possible and permissible at every stage of life. Society needs to learn to reimagine our approach to later life. And that begins with the folks who are already in their golden years.

“Growing older living bolder” requires some important structural changes. Plus, we need to think about aging in an entirely new way. For a start, we will have to tear up the old script that locks us into devoting the early part of our lives to education, the middle chunk to working and raising kids, and whatever is left over at the end to leisure. These “age silos” need to dissolve.

Instead, we will embrace the idea that we can carry on learning well into our golden years. We can work less and devote more time to family, leisure, and giving back to our communities in our middle years. And we can remain active and engaged in our later years.

Would you like to start rethinking what aging means to you? Listen to the interview with Carl Honoré to hear his fascinating views about how we can make the most of our golden years. Growing older, living bolder! Just click on the “Play Episode” triangle above.

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