Age is but a number

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be on a plane to my home away from home, the Bay Area of California.  I go there at least twice a year to spend time with my family.  This is a particularly special occasion, as my father turns 80 next week.  My father is one of those guys who has been using the “old” card since he was younger than I am today.  “I’m too old!” has been his protest line since he turned 40.  I was thinking that after 40 years of calling himself old, perhaps at 80 he has actually earned the adjective.  Then the other night I was on a Peak Potentials call with T. Harv Eker to promote his Woodstock for the Mind event next month.  Twenty minutes into the call, I had a different perspective on idea that my father is now “old.”

T. Harv’s first guest speaker was the legendary Art Linkletter.  I grew up watching Art Linkletter on shows like “People Are Funny” and “House Party.”  He famously wrote a book about children, called “Kids Say The Darndest Things.”  In recent years he’s been more of a pitchman for products and services for seniors.  I learned on this call that Art is now in what he termed his “45th anniversary of his 50th birthday.”  The man is 95!  Not a doddering 95, but a man who only two years ago quit skiing only because his wife threw the skis away.  Art Linkletter still runs businesses, is very active physically and on the speakers’ circuit, and has a keen mind.  He talked about finding your passion and living it.  It was incredibly inspiring to listen to this icon share a small bit of what is nearly a century of wisdom and experience.

Suddenly, 80 is looking young!  And if 80 is looking young, what of my age, 50?  I’m just a baby!  (Someone pass me the Junket, please.)  This is a great perspective that is validated when you see people like Art Linkletter, Jack LaLanne (who, in his 90s, can still workout harder than 98% of people 70 years his junior), or the late Kitty Carlyle Hart, who passed away recently at 95 but was singing professionally at 93!

Here’s to my dad — may he live to be an old man!