The Power Years

Ken Dychtwald is known as an expert on the Baby Boomer in the United States. He is a boomer himself, and as a gerontologist he has studied the Boomers for more than 30 years. The thing I like most about him is the fact that he is so positive about the limitless potential of the Boomer. The Power Years--A Users Guide to the Rest of Your Life was published in 2005 by Ken Dychtwald and Daniel J. Kadlec.

It is a must read for anybody who is seeking to engage the Baby Boomers in active church ministry and kingdom building. In the first chapter of the book, the authors make the case as to why the remaining years of life for the "new old" are truly the Power Years. They list 7 reasons:

1. We'll Be Living Longer and Healthier

"We will live longer and grow old later in life than any previous generation. Incredibly, two-thirds of all those who have made it to age sixty-five in the history of mankind are today walking the earth. We are not just living longer; we are also in better health and enjoy greater youthfulness and vitality. There are more 50-and sixty-year-olds running marathons, buying Harleys, starting new careers, going to rock concerts, and getting facelifts than ever before. Our increasing longevity and good health, coupled with our natural desire to remain youthful, are the greatest forces behind the power years...The upshot is that great numbers of people--not just exceptions--are able to work and play as they like far longer than anyone might have expected."

2. The Cyclic Life plan will replace the Outmoded Linear Model

"The landmark New Retirement Survey that he (Dychtwald) directed in 2004 with Merrill Lynch was based on interviews with more than three thousand boomers. The study found that only 17 percent of them said they intended to stop working for pay forever in their next stage of life. A whopping 42 percent reported that they hoped to cycle in and out of work and leisure for extended periods throughout life; 16 percent expected to continue working part-time; 13 percent were planning on starting their own business; and 6 percent fully intended to keep working full-time right through their retirement years."

Incredibly, of the 76 percent who intended to continue working in some fashion, more than half were hoping to do so in a completely new career or line of work!

"Further, when asked why so many wanted to stay involved with work, the overwhelming response was not money. Instead, two of three said the main reason was to stay mentally active. Members of our highly educated and productive generation simply don't want to live a life of intellectual stagnation and mental irrelevance."

3. We'll Have a Big--and Growing Pool of Role Models

Late achievement, while multiplying in frequency, isn't altogether new.

Grandma Moses didn't start painting until she was almost eighty.

Groucho Marx launched a new career as a television show host at sixty-five.

George Bernard Shaw was at work on a new play when he died at ninety-four.

Galileo published his masterpiece Dialogue Concerning the Top New Sciences at seventy-four.

Noah Webster was seventy when he published An American Dictionary of the English Language.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim Museum in New York at ninety-one.

Mahatma Gandhi was seventy-two when he completed successful negotiations with Britain for India's independence.

Colonel Sanders was 65 when he began Kentucky Fried Chicken."

"In their day, these remarkable men and women may have been considered highly unusual. But these Ageless Explorers have carved new trails ahead of us and represent the first wave of maturity pioneers. We baby boomers will be next, and we'll turn this thorny trail into a superhighway. "

(More in next post)

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