Each week, about 75,000 Americans turn 65. The last Baby Boomers will reach that milestone in 2029—but the march will not end. Generation X follows immediately behind, turning 65 at much the same rate. For millions of us, the question is shifting from how to build value to how intentionally we will live it.
I thought I was booking directly with a hotel. I wasn’t. That simple misunderstanding cost me an extra night’s lodging and taught me a broader lesson about navigating today’s digital world. In an age of sponsored links and online intermediaries, situational awareness begins long before we reach our destination.
More than forty years ago, I made a “business first” decision that shaped my career and Mercer Capital’s future. Recently, I realized it was time for a different decision: “living value first.” This essay explores why the transition from building value to living it is ultimately a transition of identity.
A simple message on my Garmin watch stopped me in my tracks. It suggested that, in one important respect, I wasn’t really 78. That unexpected discovery introduced me to the concept of Fitness Age and prompted me to think differently about how we measure—and influence—the aging process.
Can one quick glance at your watch really ruin a good night’s sleep? After more than three months of avoiding the habit, I accidentally looked at the time—and immediately remembered why I stopped. The experience reinforced a simple lesson: just one look is all it takes.
Every once in a while, a book reinforces something you have believed for years. That was my experience with “Move Your DNA” by Katy Bowman. The book helped me put words around an idea that has shaped many of my daily habits: exercise matters, but movement matters too—and they are not the same thing. The distinction is simple, but it has meaningful implications for how we think about health, aging, and everyday life.
Reading the book, Pickleball Therapy, reminded me of a lesson I first learned from The Inner Game of Tennis more than 35 years ago: the greatest obstacles are often the conversations we have with ourselves. While the voice of self-doubt changes with age, the challenge remains the same, recognizing it before it talks us out of opportunities, relationships, and experiences.
Aging well is about more than living longer, it is about maintaining the health, mobility, and independence that make added years meaningful. This post reflects on the often-overlooked risks of falls and the importance of staying aware, active, and prepared.
In this reflective post, I revisit career advice from an early mentor about the importance of momentum. What once meant ambition, productivity, and professional advancement has gradually taken on new meaning in semi-retirement. Slowing down, he has learned, is not the same as stopping. Aging well may depend less on acceleration and more on maintaining purposeful forward motion fueled by gratitude, engagement, and intentional living.
This post reflects on a surprisingly simple lesson learned during a restless night: sometimes the harder we try to control things, the worse they become. A small decision to stop checking the time led to better sleep — and a broader reminder that aging gratefully may involve letting go of habits, worries, and quiet anxieties that no longer serve us.
