A Chic Paris Lockdown – Day 14 – Elegant and Active At All Ages
May 3, 2020
Fiona Ferris titles Day 14 “Grow Better Every Year” in her book, 30 More Chic Days. She writes about aging as “growing better each year.” Fiona definitely has a good point about how our attitude and our actions have a great deal with determining how we experience any of our years. Our later years are likewise heavily influenced by our mental perspective and habits. We’ve all seen inspiring examples of people who move with grace and vitality through different stages of life. And we’ve seen the sad opposite. Our best option, as Fiona writes, is to create a chic vision of the people we want to be now in the present and in the future. This chic and elegant vision will draw us to the necessary actions towards that lovely vision.
I like Fiona’s advice that we have to consciously create a picture of who we want to be when we are older and especially a vision of how we want to approach the whole “aging” topic. As Fiona describes, our most powerful allies are our language and our habits. We can change how we talk about ourselves and our experiences. Why would we call a moment of absentmindedness a “senior moment” when we experieince it after the age of 40? What did we call absentmindedness when we were seniors in high school? (That’s a quote from a humourous TedTalk by Ashton Applegate on aging and ageism here.) As Fiona writes, we do not have to make a big production out of being whatever age we happen to be. We can be matter-of-fact about pulling out our reading glasses to read the small print of a menu in a candle-lit restaurant. We can also be matter-of-fact about learning new ways of doing business or learning new technology. (We’ve been learning new things all of our lives, there is no reason that just because we’ve celebrated a certain birthday, we never have to learn another new thing.) We needn’t dwell on problems of age (or any other topic) either in our minds nor our conversation (no one really wants to hear all that dreary talk anyway – not even ourselves!) Keeping a positive attitude and ensuring that we have something fun and interesting to elevate our day keeps us focused on all the good things going on in our lives.
One of the best recipes for enjoying each year with panache, energy and fun is Chris Crowley’s book, Younger Next Year (website: www.youngernextyear.com) Fiona gives us the questions and tools to build a positive and forward-looking mental attitude on chic aging. Chris gives us the nuts and bolts of how to physically craft that healthy and engaged future. As a creative and active 86-year-young retired attorney-turned-writer/ski-bum, Chris is a terrific “chic” role model for us all.
One of the lessons I am learning in lockdown Paris this Spring is that being confined in any apartment (no matter how cute it is) is NOT my ideal of the good life. There is a gorgeous Springtime in Paris going on all outside. I desperately want to be out experiencing it for more than the allowed 1-hour per day. Before, when we were free to walk, I saw many Parisians of a “certain age” (some of them looking like they were part of the original cast of WW1) walking briskly about their business, looking dapper and chic, interested and involved. I want to be like them when I am their age (not infirm, frumpy and feeble-minded.)
My “Chic Lockdown Success” plan that I wrote about here yesterday is an example of how I’m using Fiona and Chris’s advice. A plan that stretches away into the far, misty future is great to start with. (I like a good, meaty future vision.) But I’ve found that I am more motivated to work towards that vision if I break it down into smaller chunks. I would like to be chic, elegant and active long into my 80’s and beyond AND I would also like to be and live those things right now. To accomplish that, I have my “Chic Lockdown Plan” for this Spring. I will have a “Chic Summer Plan” as soon as lockdown ends. Yes, there will be a “Chic Fall Plan” after that. If I keep a 90-day seasonal “Chic Plan” in my mind, I find that I am motivated to create/keep the mental and physical habits that my Plan-du-Season encourages. With Fiona and Chris on my chic mentor team, I have the tools (and coaches) to work my way to an elegant, active and fun future.
