It’s Never Too Late to Discover New Passions and Purpose

About Brookdale Senior Living

Brookdale Senior Living offers multiple care levels for seniors in more than 600 communities nationwide. Brookdale helps you find the right care plan for yourself or your loved one. With amenities such as transportation services, salons and private dining rooms and activities such as gardening, fitness classes and trivia nights Brookdale caters to a wide range of interests and needs.

There’s nothing wrong with being a “late bloomer.” The pages of history are filled with the stories of people who, for various reasons, made their mark on the world at an age well past what society might consider their “prime.” For example:

Anna Mary Robertson Moses was in her late 70s and still mourning the passing of her husband of 50 years when she began painting “to keep busy and out of mischief.” Although she was self-taught, her colorful and nostalgic depictions of rural life caught the attention of a New York collector. With his help, she began exhibiting professionally and soon became famous as “Grandma Moses.” Before her death at age 101, she had painted more than 1,500 scenes, many reproduced on Hallmark greeting cards. Today, she remains an icon of American folk art.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, who had experienced firsthand frontier life in the American West of the 1870s–1890s, began writing fiction based on her childhood at her daughter’s encouragement. Little House in the Big Woods, the first book in what would become a popular series, was published in 1932, when Wilder was 65. These books, which have sold more than 60 million copies, inspired the TV series Little House on the Prairie.
Colonel Harland Sanders, an operator of a service station that doubled as a restaurant for travelers, was 62 when he sold his first franchise in the company that would soon become world-famous as Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The point is, it’s never too late to discover new passions and purpose in life. That may be truer now than ever before. In 1932, the same year Little House in the Big Woods was published, Walter B. Pitkin’s self-help book Life Begins at Forty also hit the shelves to great success. At that time, the average life expectancy in America had climbed to 60 years. Now it’s 77.5, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Today, you have plenty of time to thrive and flourish after retirement — and the right senior living community can be the perfect place to do so.

Health Benefits of Living With Purpose

Living with purpose is living with a sense of meaning and direction that honors who you are, what you are good at, what you enjoy doing and what you are capable of accomplishing. It means recognizing your personal uniqueness, passions, power and potential. Possible health benefits of such a life include:

Decreased stress
A strengthened immune system
More resilience
An increased lifespan
Less likelihood of a heart attack or stroke
Better cognitive function
Better sleep
A reduced chance of developing Alzheimer’s

Many people, of course, discover their purpose before their senior years, for example starting a business, raising a family, going into a ministry or public service, turning creativity into a career, or discovering some other meaningful pursuits. Even if you’ve retired and are living a somewhat less active lifestyle, you can find new passions and purpose. In other words, you can bloom more than once!

Improving With Age

The National Institute on Aging points out that older adults have accumulated more knowledge and experience (and vocabulary) than younger adults. They also remain capable of learning new skills, forming new memories, and improving their language and vocabulary.

In his book Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed With Early Achievement (Currency, 2019), author and Forbes magazine publisher Rich Karlgaard describes six unique abilities or traits of late bloomers: curiosity, resilience, equanimity, creativity, insight and compassion. He writes:

We get smarter and more creative as we age, research shows. Our brain’s anatomy, neural networks, and cognitive abilities can actually improve with age and increased life experiences. Contrary to the mythology of Silicon Valley, older employees may be even more productive, innovative, and collaborative than younger ones…. Most people, in fact, have multiple cognitive peaks throughout their lives.

One factor in this development is neuroplasticity, which Psychology Today has defined as “the brain’s capacity to continue growing and evolving in response to life experiences…. the ability for the brain to adapt or change over time, by creating new neurons and building new networks.”

The Proof Is in the People

One of the many benefits of moving to a senior living community is having someone else take care of chores like cooking, housekeeping and lawn care so that you have more time to nurture passions.

In Brookdale communities, you’ll find people who are doing just that—people like pianist, knitting instructor and Welcome Ambassador Lorraine Denov; photographer, magazine publisher and greeting card designer Susanne Sweeney; origami teacher and eternal optimist Dave Kildahl; sports talk program host Will Eaton; and artist and instructor Dottie Petrushke. All these people are “making their mark” — and making a difference —by finding new ways for their passions and purpose to thrive, and by generously sharing those gifts with others.

New Brookdale residents have the benefit of personalized approaches, programs and plans that help meet their care needs and desires, which helps pave the way for a new life of passion and purpose.