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August 21 is National Senior Citizen Day: Live Your Best Senior Years

If you could sit down with a pencil and paper and list what the top five goals most people would put for their senior citizen years, what do you suppose would go on that list? Financial security would probably rank pretty high and spending time with family would get good marks. However, the goals that would probably rank the highest would be good health, avoiding injury and continued long life.

Studies show that the senior citizens that are the most successful at living their best senior years are the ones who obsess the least about being successful.

The research on the effect of attitude on how well senior citizens do mentally, emotional and physically lends some credibility that your outlook on life seems to have a great deal to do with your quality of life.

Part of why that is has to do with expectations. If you enter your senior years with the expectation that you will be ill more often, you will experience more periods of low energy.

If each day you wake up anticipating poor health and low stamina, you won’t be as active during the day. You won’t want to socialize with others and you won’t have goals and ambitions. And these are the kinds of things that keep people of any age going. By “giving up” to the onset of old age, we send a signal to our minds and to our bodies that there will be no effort to stay fit and healthy. If there is no effort in those directions, poor health and low energy is the result.

There is a lot of cause and effect when it comes to looking at your life with confidence and ambition. Studies frequently show that senior citizens who are active, who get out and take on projects, spend time with others and refuse to let old age get them down are the ones that stay happy and healthy longer and have better quality of life throughout their retirement years.

Senior citizens who do volunteer work are active in helping others and who are always finding ways to bless the lives of family and friends also seem to be happier and more successful members of the senior community.

The best way to turn around the effects of a bad attitude and get a better outlook is to seek better companionship. The old saying “misery loves company” is quite accurate. So to get a better mental attitude, be with people who have good attitudes. A positive and creative outlook on life is contagious.