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It's a fact: How fast or how well you age is all in the head. It's as simple as that.

It's how you decide to behave. It's your attitude about life. It's how you feel about yourself. It's about what you think is possible. It's about what you think is important. Briefly, it comes down to choices you make about how you live your life.

However, there is more to it than that. Tradition, custom, conventional wisdom, consensus thinking, the influence of friends, the media, plus influences you are not even aware of -- all affect how you live your life ' and how you age.

For example, society tells us that about age 55, you are a 'senior.' If you accept that categorization of yourself at age 55, you will experience 'oldness' signs far earlier than necessary. That's because acceptance of 'seniorhood' carries with it adoption of approved 'oldness' thinking and behaviors.

You don't deliberately adopt old thinking and behaviors. Tradition and culture have established how you 'ought to be' at a given age. Unaware of the influence, it's easy to fall into line.

Close friends who have fallen into line reinforce 'old' thinking and behaviors. We learn from each other without being aware of it. The result is what I call the 'monkey see monkey do' syndrome.

It doesn't have to happen. Remember, controlling old age begins in your head. Regardless of friends or cultural influences, you can march to your own drummer. It may not be easy if belonging is important to you, or if being different is difficult for you, but you can control oldness influences.

Instead of becoming a 'senior' (or whatever word describes or categorizes people beyond age 55), you can remain an ageless mature woman or man in a constant state of growth. You don't need to be in a category. You don't need to accept mores of a society that is out of touch with reality.

Are we really are out of touch with reality?

Absolutely. It's absurd to call anyone at age 55 a senior. It may have been appropriate 50 years ago, but it no longer makes sense. Consider that in 1950 there were possibly 2,300 centenarians. Today there are over 40,000. By 2050 there will be close to a million people 100 years of age or older. We are living longer ' that's a fact.

So why cling to horse-and-buggy thinking that results in limitation of your potential? Why do we continue to relegate people at age 55 to seniorhood with all the 'old' baggage that goes along with it? Could it be because 'old age' is very big business, and debilitated old age is even bigger business? Let's face it: A shortage of prematurely compromised people in various stages of need or want would adversely impact the economy.

You don't have to succumb to tradition, conventional wisdom, or whatever you want to call it. You don't have to see yourself or accept yourself as 'old' because society says you are old. There is a better way and Helen Harkness, Ph.D. describes it in her revolutionary book, 'Don't Stop the Career Clock.' Dr. Harkness says, 'If we need some kind of aging chronology, I suggest we design our own. The following is my 'live long, die fast' contemporary model for aging.' And it's this:

Young adulthood: 20-40; First Midlife: 40-60; Second Midlife: 60-80; Young old: 80-90; Elderly: 90 and above; Old-old: 2-3 years to live

If you are age 55, doesn't it make you feel better to know you are not a senior, but merely in your first midlife? If you are 70 or beyond, doesn't it change your outlook on life to know that you are not 'elderly' but merely in your second midlife? After all, if living to 100 or beyond is becoming the norm, then age 70 certainly is not elderly!

Let's jettison antiquated attitudes and behaviors relative to chronological age. Let's stop categorizing ourselves as 'old' (or allow others to do it to us) when there is so much life left to live as vibrant, dynamic, mature ageless persons in a constant state of growth. Your chronological age is just a number. Don't allow it to become a premature death sentence by adopting 'age appropriate' thinking and behaviors that are out of touch with reality.

The bottom line: You can triumph over oldness, regardless of your age, if you take control of what goes on in your head, and challenge antediluvian attitudes, thinking and behaviors that no longer make sense.

Copyright 2006 Barbara Morris, R.Ph.