Most of us swing between wanting to set the world on fire and in wondering what the fuss is all about. I know that I have put a lot more thought and study into the phenomenon of aging than I ever did about growing up or being grown-up. I just read an article written in the October 2011 issue of Northwest Prime Time magazine by Georgie Bright Kunkel (gnkunkel@comcast.net), and I was totally impressed. She is an author, a stand-up comic, and a motivational speaker who focuses on motivating the senior crowd. She reminds us that it is important to be up-beat, and to focus on what we can do instead of worrying about what we can’t do. This advice is timeless, but perhaps now that we are older we can finally understand what she is saying.
Her comment about how oldies are just “ten year olds with wrinkles and great wisdom” really tickled me. It’s true you know. We are still the same people that we have always been, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t still learn how to be better. It is easy to get sidetracked. We spend so much time worrying about every wrinkle that we forget about how good we feel and how lucky we are. Ms. Kunkel talks about the importance of moving forward. She admonishes seniors everywhere to reach out to a world that needs champions of every age.
Instead of making New Year resolutions that you won’t keep, try following her suggestion about preparing a folder of things that you “want to do”. Go to bed each night with a to-do list of things you want to do the next day. Stop cluttering your list with minutia and think about exciting things that you have never done before. Learning a foreign language or teaching someone how to read is much more exciting than cleaning a closet, don’t you think? She is talking about dreams. I don’t think any of us have dreams about housework (nightmares perhaps but not dreams), so try to think globally. We seem to need someone like Ms. Kunkel to remind us that It is neither too late to have dreams or to work on fulfilling them. I am hoping that her articles will become a regular feature in this publication.
She admonishes everyone to be their own driving force. Be the person who reaches out. If you always wait for someone else to make the first move, you may never do anything at all. Motivation is a powerful tool. It takes motivation to lose weight, it takes motivation to quit smoking, it takes motivation to adopt a healthier lifestyle and it takes motivation to find a reason to get up every morning. There is a reason why motivational speakers are so popular. One of those reasons is that most of us need a kick in the pants from time to time.
I just ran across this piece mentioning what I wrote in NW Prime Time. I love that people gain from my writing and am so pleased that this has moved someone to write about it.
I just gave a speech to a group about How I Intend to Spend the rest of My Life. I am now 91 years old and still learning and excited about life.
Posted by: Georgie Bright Kunkel | May 17, 2012 at 10:27 PM