Meet Jeff Rubin the Visionary Producer of Senior Moments

Jeff Rubin is the author of Wisdom of Age and the seminal video series Senior Moments. I speak with a true visionary and artist on what it means to be older, how we see ourselves and others, and why ageism is so "sticky." Can we ever escape from our age-essential attitudes? How do we transcend our self-age prejudices? Why do some elders continue to contribute to the community, and others as wealthy and healthy withdraw? Which one will you be as you age?

Episode Transcript

(00:08):
When I look in the mirror,I don't see wrinkles. When I look
in the mirror, I see hairon my head, not my shoulder.
Hello. Hello, Hello, Thisis Adrian Bergen. This is Generation Bold,
the fountain of truth, the fountainof truth about what well, the

(00:30):
fountain of truth about aging. Andone of those truths that doesn't have to
be so true is agism. Youknow he used to be and you,
if you really enjoyed West Side Story, you must love Officer Krubkey, because
nobody understands me, says the kids. And I don't know. I don't

(00:54):
think anybody understands me. And I'mseventy five years old. So maybe it's
time that somebody understood me. Andwe have somebody who does understand. He
is the producer of Senior Moments,an incredible series that yet to be sponsored.
Hint, hint for everybody listening,no joke about that. We're going

(01:15):
to talk about that from the pointof view of consumerism and why we are
the hidden market in a very seriousway, but also the Wisdom of Age.
And you must go to his websiteWisdom of Age. We'll talk about
that a little bit more and getat your hankies because I have not witnessed
one video on wisdom of age.I did not make me cry or I

(01:36):
was for clipped like in coffee clutch. I got for clipped from this Jeff
Rubin. So you be you beprepared to be for clipped, because here
he comes. It's advocate, communityorganizer, author, producer Jeff Rubbin in
the house. Oh wow wow,introduction. Right, thank you, thank

(02:01):
you, thank you for having me, mister motivation. All right, mister
motivation. So first of all,tell us a little bit first about senior
moments, and then we'll talk aboutthe wisdom of age. First, senior
moments, Well, you know,the senior moments. We've heard that expression
all our lives, and it's sucha negative expression. You know, I

(02:21):
have friends of mine in their thirtiesand forties and and even younger, who
oh, I'm having a senior moment, and it's such a derogatory term.
But then when you have people ourage and older, I'm having a senior
moment, it's self deprecating. Andso that's the impression that people have.

(02:42):
It's one of the impressions that peoplehave about older adults. And so I
said, what if we could flipthat on its ear. What if Senior
Moments was a positive moment rather thansomething to poke fun at? And so
I started a campaign to give peopleof age sixty or above so it can

(03:05):
be sixty, two hundred and sixtyto say whatever they want to say about
where they are in life. Andthey can tell a joke, they can
sing a song, they can giveyou insight into their their way of looking
at issues, and so we're givingpeople an opportunity to express themselves in ways

(03:27):
that they may not have been ableto do before. Matter of fact,
one of the things we say iswe give voice to the voice lists.
And what we're doing is we're showcasingthe fact that our impressions of older adults
is contrary to what is real,what the reality is for many older adults.

(03:47):
And so that's the significance behind theSenior Moments. Our goal is to
put together one of the most extensiveonline videos that focus on senior much.
And you know, if you lookat some of them at your website,
will give you the full year oldin a minute. And that's a wisdom
of age. You really do getfor clemth, but you also really really

(04:10):
get inspired and not only young people. You see, there's a lot of
what Jeff Ruben does, which isto bring the idea of what it means
to be older to younger folks sothey get it and they can live their
best life. But the fact isthat for me it was already very inspiring
and I'm in that right. Andlet me give you one example. Jeff

(04:30):
Moira Allen, who I happen toknow. I recognized her right away.
On one of the senior moments.She articulated something that is something I never
was able to say about me,about my own self, and that was
the purpose of my life, saysMoira, who is the head of Excuse
me, are you talking about Moira? I'm sorry, jan nineteen years old

(04:56):
old. Yeah, Jane Hiveley andMoira Allen started the really un sanctioned and
very well known group which is calledPassing On Network. And I hear them
both and they've both been friends fora very long time. But one of
them, Jane is ninety years old. We'll all do now. And what
she said on your video was forme life purpose is to work, whether

(05:23):
paid or unpaid is a quote,whether paid or unpaid until the very end,
to work where the paid or unpaiduntil the very end. Now,
most people, even people my age, especially people might recoil from that word
work. It's actually the opposite ofretirement, which means to withdraw. I
love that word and most people don't. But the point of this with senior

(05:47):
moments is we all have our owndifferent senior moment that's inspirational. So I
have to ask you, how doyou get these people? I mean to
me that the all in highly groupthat's famous, but a lot of the
other folks are not. How doyou get them? How do you get
them to say these things that aresuch nuggets? Well, you know,

(06:10):
it's funny. I was at theI was asked to participate in the Leading
Age Expo this past October in Denver, and we had a booth and we
were able to show that video thatyou saw, and the response was overwhelmingly
positive. And so a lot ofthe people who attended, who who are

(06:34):
representative of a number of assistant livingfacilities and nursing homes around the country,
said oh, we have a perfectresident here that would love to be part
of this. And so that issome of the ways that we're getting people
to participate. But what We haverepresentatives from from senior centators and retirement communities

(06:59):
and through a number of associations throughthe Passing Our network, as well as
others that are just taken by theidea and are looking forward to doing it.
I was on the phone the otherday with a fellow from Calgary,
Canada. Yeah, and he representsa senior centator that he said, Oh,

(07:25):
this will be perfect. He said, listen, I also am a
videographer. He said, do youmind if I videotape this for people who
wouldn't be able to do this ontheir own. I said absolutely. So
getting people to want to say somethingis not a problem people. You know,

(07:46):
what I find so interesting is thateveryone has something to say, something
to contribute, but very few areasked. And I think you empower people
when you say, well, whatdo you think? Why do you think?
You know? We do a lotof work in communication, particularly for
the United Nations. One of mycommittees is the NGO on Aging Communications Subcommittee,

(08:09):
and we discovered that simply having anewsletter where people can read contributions of
others changes the world, not justchanges yourself inside, as I've been talking
about with you, Jeff. BecauseI am moved by what you do,
but it actually changes the world.So, yes, you said, it's
not so difficult to get people tospeak. What is difficult, though,

(08:31):
is to get people to listen.Now, Yeah, anybody listening to this
nose exactly what I mean, whetherthey're talking about their spouse, their family,
their boss, or anybody who arein the world of advocacy. So
how do you get it out there? Give us about a minute before the
end of this segment on how youget senior moments out there so that people

(08:52):
could hear it, and we'll talkabout how you can be supported in doing
that when we come back. Howare you disseminating the information right now?
Through social media as and through andthrough word of mouth through my contacts.
You know, I've been in thisfield for over twenty five years and I

(09:16):
know a number of different people andand continue to meet new people all the
time. And I look at howthis can be a benefit for both both
the individual and the organization. Forexample, if I have someone from assisted
living facility, for example, wheretheir resident or residents want to participate,

(09:41):
well, will not only acknowledge theperson who is speaking and not a last
name, but a first name andwhat have you. But we'll also acknowledge
the facility where that person lives,so we're helping to promote the facility as
well as the resident. Or ifit's not a facility where they live,

(10:03):
it can be again, it couldbe any one of a number of places
where people congregate or people want toparticipate. So when we'll talk about a
little bit about this issue of consumerismand what I call the wows wow and
wowm and that is wild old womenand wild old men. And by this

(10:28):
I mean a segment over the ageof seventy five A lot of your folks
are. And why there is thisdisconnect between the actual economic reality of these
folks and what consumer marketing companies thinkabout these folks. Don't you go anywhere.
We'll be right back. But thatdoesn't bother me. Not. I

(10:52):
am happy and I'm inappropriate form.You may think that I'll bother me.
Not because I am happy, I'minappropriate. Oh my, and hello,

(11:20):
hello, Hello, this is AdrianBergen. This is Generation Bold, the
Fountain of Truth, the Fountain oftruth about aging. A couple of different
housekeepings for you today. Don't forgetour course specially discounted by fifty percent for
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(12:07):
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(12:31):
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(12:54):
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(13:16):
go to our contact and let meknow, Yes, I want to be
on the Agelest Traveler list. Okay, so now we want to go back
to Jeff Ruben and Jeff Rubin isbasically a fun guy and what he is
bringing out in the world of olderadults is how much fun we are.
And that's fine, but there's alittle bit more to it. We also

(13:37):
have a lot of money. Letme tell you that. I know you're
supposed to say it's poverty. Wehave fooded security a vay okay, except
fifty four percent of the wealth inthe United States are held in the hands
of women over the age of sixty. Yes, a lot of it is
because their husbands lifted to them,but a lot of it isn't. A

(13:58):
lot of it is still my generationwho really made it big but did not
get married and have no kids becauseof sexism. Now we are looking at
as the depressed, the people whoneed to be supported. So, Jeff,
you go to assisted living communities andthe folks who you need to support,

(14:20):
Let's say a production series, andthere'll be many more because you're very
creative, like senior moments, lookat these folks as non consumers, as
people without the money to spend.And you know, it's interesting, it's
not just the ones that assisted livingthat they look at that way. It's
people who are living on their own. Even in the over fifty five communities,

(14:41):
they're playing pickle ball and they're runningto grease every two minutes, and
yet we are not consumers. Whatis that about? Well, you know,
I believe it's the people who arerunning the companies that are marketing their
products. They until quite recently,up until I believe the last time I

(15:03):
saw it was twenty fifteen, there'sless than five percent of advertising dollars that
was spent on people forty five orolder. And so who's making those decisions?
Well, I think it's people whoare in their thirties and maybe forty.
You know, and you get tobe over forty, you're an old
person. In an advertising field,you're hard pressed to find employment at that

(15:26):
age. So agism becomes a factordepending upon the type of profession you're in
if you're in high tech, forexample, in a Silicon Valley area,
I talked to people who said theycouldn't get a job because they're over thirty.
So it's the perception that we haveof older people and the misperception we

(15:54):
have. Yes, there are anumber of older people who, unfortunately are
are living at the poverty level orlower, and we're not talking about that
because we don't want to talk aboutage related issues as much as we want

(16:15):
to talk about the hope and buoyancyof younger people in terms of creating the
future. But if we stop listeningto well we can't understand or bridge the
gap between the young people and theolder people, we all lose in the
end. So I do believe thatthere is a misunderstanding that pervades the marketplace

(16:45):
when it comes to recognizing the valueand the purchasing power of older adults.
And I think it's very deep.I'm going to bring you and my listeners
into a whole new world just twoseconds and a little bit crazy. But
I am a student of metaphysics,and one of the things they talk about
in metaphysics is are you a continuousperson? Are you the same person year

(17:11):
after year after year, or actuallyare you a different kind of person?
And it seems to me and I'mthinking back to my youth, and I'm
going to say youth from the beginningto let's say age thirty five. I'm
not sure I could connect with thefact that I was going to be old
now older. I connect very easilywith the fact that I was younger and

(17:33):
have my memories and so on.I'm not sure I could have a vision,
a real internalized vision. I thinkthat it's almost impossible to understand who
we are if we are thirty yearsold, or who we're going to be.
And that's why I think the bridgeyou're making, and I've seen some
of these productions is critical because whatit can do, it can help us

(17:59):
inter analize the truth, which iswhat this show is about, the truth
about aging. And I don't thinkanyone I don't want to blame thee the
marketing profession, but you said aboutlosing your worth and value, I did
simply because I was the older blondeon television. They simply wanted the younger
blonde, same thing. They justwanted to me, just younger. So

(18:22):
we get that, and I thinkit's it's insidious, and I think it
may be humanistic, and that's whyit's very, very difficult to fight.
But I will call upon one groupthat never does anything for us, and
that is the American Ad Council.They created visions of black Americans that made
the very first person she was actuallyhere in Palm Springs yesterday, Johnson to

(18:47):
be on Vogue magazine, the veryfirst woman of color model on Vogue Magazine.
They did that. The Ad Councildid that. Nobody else did that
and have felt it through the Americanpsyche. They're not doing it this with
older adults. They simply aren't.I don't care about Go Gray or Stay
Gray or the silver models, theyare still not doing it to the extent

(19:10):
that they have to with regard tothis. So let's take a look at
the fact that we're not just walkingaround bladders, which is what the AIDS
think we are. We spend alot of money. We spend a lot
of money even in assistant living communities. We spend on our grandkids, we
spend on all kinds of medications,yes, but also on kinds of fine
foods, entertainment, lots of stuff. How do you get to these people

(19:33):
you've tried? Do you feel thatyou're getting somewhere? I do. It's
you know, I've I've always.I guess I could say I grew up
around older people. You know,I was influenced by my parents' friends who
to me. You know, Imean, when you think about age,

(19:56):
it's a relative term. When you'refive years old, twelve old, when
you're twelve, twenties old, etcetera, etcetera. So you know, I
at five and six and seven,I was surrounded by older people who helped
shape how I looked at agent.And I had friends later in life.
In fact, the inspiration for mybook Wisdom of Age was by a fellow

(20:19):
who just he passed away at ninetyeight years old, and he was an
inspiration for so many people throughout hisformative years and well into his nineties.
And I had another friend who waspassed away at eighty seven, who was
another incredibly inspiring, an influential person. And you know what gets me,

(20:44):
though, is we when we talkabout older people and their value, we
look at people who jump out ofan airplane, you know, or ride
a motorcycle, and we don't lookat the people who are doing some very
basic things that are making a differencein someone else's life. And so where

(21:06):
I have to tell you age andI honestly believe that are that there are
people I come across who are sobeaten down by the impression that people have
of them that everything they see onTV or reading the paper, or or
or what's being being promoted to themas as what they need is so debil

(21:32):
debilitating. It's not uplifting, it'snot inspiring. And so I think over
the years people just become beaten down, and I think we need to change
that mindset to say, look,you don't have to fly um or a
bound you know what was the SupermanU bound a building in a certain in

(21:55):
a single bound. You just needto raise your hand. You just need
to say, hey, I'm there. I have something to give. I
have, I have experience, Ihave UM I have uh the ability to
sit down with someone who's lonely andspend time with them. I have the

(22:15):
ability to help another human being inneed with whatever skills and abilities I have,
And that to me is so muchmore than looking at somebody like um
Or or promoting somebody like Martha Stewartto be on the cover. Yeah,

(22:38):
yeah, and all covered up.But we can. But we will talk
about that. Yes, we're goingto talk about that in just a moment.
I don't want to cut you offbecause this is so inspirational, but
let's take a little bit of abreak and we come back. One of
my biggest complaints, how much ofthe fault of older persons is a jis

(23:00):
And the reason that's important is ifit's partially our fault and we could do
something about it, don't you guysgo anywhere all. But that doesn't bother
me, not even a bit,because I am happy and a freely admit
I'm inappropriate for my age. DAyou may think that I'm all of it.

(23:29):
That don't bother me, not evenbecause I am happy and I'm inappropriate.
Oh my, and hello, Hello, Hello, This is Adrian Berg
and this is Generation Bold, theFountain of Truth about Aging. Couple of
really really quick, because I wantto go right back to my guests.

(23:51):
Jeff Rubin, who is the producerof Senior Moments. He is the author
of the website um Wisdom of Ageand the book Wisdom of Age. We'll
talk about that in a moment veryquick. You want to be able to
speak out like we're talking about righthere, like we feel we get beaten
down. Well you don't have tobe. That's why I created speak Out
Communication for you how to touch movementinspire anyone, anywhere, at any time.

(24:17):
With the coupon age well agewell.It is an on demand course forty
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you, please become part of that. If it's for a parent, wonderful
great Father's Day gift or a belatedMom's Day gift. All right. We

(24:41):
have another podcast. It's called onthe Ground. It is the podcast of
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It's called on the Ground. Youcan listen to our episodes on what's working
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(25:07):
the podcast on the ground, oryou can simply as with this podcast,
got iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify. We're all over the place. All
right. Now, let's get backto Jeffrey. But now I had introduced
him to you as somebody who isthe producer of Senior Moments. It's his
latest project, Wonderful Videos where seniorsdo have a moment to speak out.

(25:29):
But he's a lot more than that. First of all, he's an author.
He's an author of the book youcan find on Amazon called Wisdom of
Age, also inspiring inspiring work byolder adults and himself at his commentary.
He is also honored as the architectof Change of the Week and this is
what I want to talk to himabout by Maria Schreiver's Sunday Paper, and

(25:51):
he's featured as one of the incredibleindividuals who's moving humanity forward. In other
words, he's an advocate. He'san advocate for us. Now, jeff
I just left off at the lastsegments saying maybe it's our fault. How
do you advocate to the older adultto get off the pickle ball court?
And I'm talking about very wealthy,healthy Creme de la Kreme. People living

(26:17):
the retirement life everybody wants, andwhat are they doing with it? Forty
six hours a week on television,two hours a day in the pickle ball
court. How do you how doyou get us to step up to that
plate? And what you mentioned helpsomebody else? Not just look good.
Now. I have nothing wrong withMartha Stewart. I was on many shows
with her, many many times,and I have nothing wrong with us showing

(26:41):
ourselves off and still looking good.But that's not enough. It's not it's
not working to beat the ages.It's got to be Would that have worked
the same if it wasn't Martha Stewart? I suppose it was just some some
person who was also a who wasnot well known to the public, but

(27:03):
uh, but certainly could could gracethe cover of Sports Illustrated. Um.
I understand why they did it,but uh, I think they might have
made it more. You know,years ago, was it? Um Oil
of Ola had a campaign for olderwomen and yeah, that was yeah.

(27:30):
I mean I was so inspired bythat and so impressed by the fact that
they recognized and said, wait aminute, you know, we're we're mad
as hell, We're not going totake it anymore. And we believe we
can sell product to older women bynot playing down to them, but but
but showcasing uh where they are inlife and and and their own beauty.

(27:56):
I mean, those are the pieceswere missing in terms of how we how
we define and how we look atolder adults. That's why I'm saying I
still believe that we're in the phaseof creating an awareness that what we thought
about older people is wrong, thatwe that we also by the way we're

(28:18):
talking about when we talk about theages, and we're talking about discrimination against
our future selves. And if wedon't take a stand now, nothing's going
to change. We're going to bein the same position that many older adults
are, where they are no longervalued or shunt it off to facilities where

(28:41):
where where they're hopefully they're taken careof in a in a humane manner,
but the family has has very littleleft to do with them. And what
I find is when we talk abouthuman beings anyone at any age, I
think the unit of virtual thing thatwe have in common is the need to

(29:02):
be needed. You know, dowe have value? Do we make a
difference in someone's life? And ifall we do is look at people in
terms of their their financial contributions andnothing else. Then we reach a point
where we say, well, sorry, you no longer cut the mustard.

(29:25):
You know, cut the mustard inBrooklyn. They say, waste of space.
Well let me tell you it's bad, and I'll tell you why.
I feel we need to look atourselves a little bit internally because when we
do make it in the retirement world, in the sense that we have sustainable
income, we have our health,we look okay. We really do need

(29:48):
to volunteer more. You know.You know, Jeff, you say,
if people are only looked at fortheir pocketbook and not for their contribution,
they have to show they can makea contribution. Right, You got to
bestir yourself a little bit and getout there and be a force to grandparent.
Or look at VolunteerMatch dot com,which is a matching site for volunteers.

(30:08):
Get out they show who you are. I'll just say one statistic.
I do like statistics. Sixty threepercent of the way small children, small
children see aging has to do withtheir grandparents. Sixty three. Now,
these are the kids on YouTube,on gaming, on videos. They know

(30:29):
better than us about technology, sothey have so much stimulation. So many
places that they could get these images, but they don't. They get sixty
three percent from their own grandparents orthe older adult in their life backs Planck
Institute. So you got to showthem because they're watching again. This is
my second broad body show analogy.You know, little night music. Children

(30:53):
will listen. Children will listen,so maybe not by the time they attend,
but the books, so we haveto get it out there. Now,
let's take a look at the Wisdomof Age. That's another one.
I call you that a project.You may not. You may call it
a website. Tell everybody where thatwebsite is Wisdom of Age. Well,
just go to www dot Wisdom ofAge dot net and you'll you'll you'll learn

(31:18):
about about not only the issues andthe opportunities, but but you'll learn more
about about my book in about theSenior Moments campaign. But on Amazon,
got to give the plug? Book? Is the book on Amazon? Yes,
yes, go ahead now, um, but I just want to tell
you that the reason for the bookwas the fact that you know, in

(31:41):
back in twenty twenty one, theWorld Health Organization came out with their report
that said one of the two peopleglobally are considered ages, and this is
it runs contrary to the fact thatwe are we are we are skewing older
worldwide. And when we say,well someone's old, when is that?

(32:06):
You know? As I alluded toearlier, I said that if I'm five,
twelve is old, I'm twelve,twenty, etc. Etc. And
I said, you know, Idon't believe there is a set age.
People have their own impression of whensomebody is quote unquote old. And I
said, you know, we canlearn from anyone if we take the time
to listen, which is something youhad mentioned earlier. And I said,

(32:30):
you know, let's let's test thisout. And so I decided to ask
school children. And I went beyondthat after You'll see in a minute.
But I but I said, youknow, I wanted to ask them did
they know any old people? Howold is old? And what's one bit
of advice they would give to somebodyyounger than themselves. Well, the responses

(32:54):
were incredible. I had children asyoung as five all the way up through
the end of high school. Butthen we went on. So my oldest
respondee asking the same question was onehundred and three years old, and it
was really interesting to see that theyoung people and the older people had a

(33:15):
clarity of insight that people in themiddle seemed to have forgotten or never learned
or lost their way. And sowhat I found interesting and other people have
told me, is that they wouldopen the book and they'd read a quote
from someone and they were so inspired. So a woman who was dealing with

(33:38):
body issues after the birth of herchild was reading about self esteem from a
nine year old and was inspired bywhat she had to say, and vice
versa. So the wisdom can comefrom anywhere and anyone, and it really
is just about life, experience isand where we are along the continuum of

(34:04):
our travels. That's all. Well, you know, when we come back,
we're going to have our sadly ourlast segment. And one of the
things that I want to talk about. I always want to talk about one
ideal with somebody who's a visionary,and Jeff is is the future. So
you guys, don't you go anywhereall man. But that doesn't bother me,
not even because I am happy anda free I'm inappropriate for my age.

(34:37):
You may think that I'm all don'tbother me, not even enough because
I am happy and I'm inappropriate ohmy and hello. Hello, Hello,
this is Adrian Bergen. This isGeneration bout the Fountain of Truth, The

(34:58):
Fountain of Truth about aging badly atour last segment for this show, but
hopefully many, many more to come. A couple of plugs. Don't forget
We've got five years of shows.Most of them are archived on adrianberg dot
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(35:22):
speak Out Communication speak Out Communication dotcom. It is my latest course.
It gives you my video that willexplain the entire course. I don't want
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speaking out anywhere, at any time, and that coupon is age. Well.

(35:44):
Right now, we're here with anadvocate. We're here with a world
changer. His name is Jeff Ruben. He is the author of both the
very comprehensive and wonderfully you know interactivewebsite. Lots of great videos there called
Whiz of Age. Wisdom of Ageis also his book which you will find
on on Amazon. That's a Wisdomof Age dot net. But he's also

(36:08):
the producer of Senior Moments and whenyou look at the Future, Jeff,
the Future of Aging. You mentionedhow you begin some of your presentations and
it was pretty profound. So tellus how you do that? I how
I begin my presentation? Yes,and you ask people you know, oh
yeah, Well, normally I'll startby asking are there any old people in

(36:31):
the room? And very few handsgo up, and I'll say, uh,
do you know any old people?And every hand goes up, and
I say, therein lies the problem. I said. We know him when
we see him, but it's notus. We're not aging, it's the
other person. And until we recognizeand accept the fact that we're all aging,

(36:53):
we're aging from the time we're borntill the time we die. But
until we are willing to accept itand talk about it, we're not going
to address the issues that deal withthat, that we all deal with in
terms of quality of life, transportation, housing, employment, uh, social

(37:15):
engagement, et cetera, et cetera, um, and the opportunities that are
available to us. You know,sometimes I feel like I straddle offense between
the people I see who see uh, the people I speak with who see
aging as this downhill slope, andthen others who who recognize the possibilities,

(37:38):
the the the opportunities, you know, the the concept that was in the
Older Americans Month theme this year,which was aging Unbound. Can you imagine
thinking in terms of, oh,can I still do something? Yeah,
I can make it, I cando something. I can still be inspired

(38:00):
to try something new. And Ihave to tell you when I hear people
who are in their forties and fiftiesand they say, oh, you know,
when you get to be my age, And I say, oh,
what are you going to say?If you're saying that now, what are
you going to say when you're sixtyor seventy, you know, or or

(38:21):
or or even eighty. You know, you're just limiting yourself by buying into
this belief that you're supposed to acta certain way and you're supposed to behave
or or conduct yourself in a waythat is how other people see you,

(38:42):
not how you see yourself. Youknow, it's so interesting how we limit
ourselves. And I think that thereal value of what you're doing for the
future as a visionary is the issueof being unbound. If we can limit
ourselves less, that doesn't mean yoube stupid. If you if you have
problems with your legs, you mightnot climb out Fuji, right right,

(39:04):
but you might do something different,and you might, as my friends did,
get Nie replacements and climb out Fuji. So that just depends on who
you are. But my favorite storyor true story friend of mine, she
always wanted to teach, and shecouldn't get what she wanted without a PhD.
And she says, but Adrian,if I get start my PhD now

(39:25):
she was in her sixties, latesixties, I won't get it till I'm
seventy two. And I said,well, you're gonna be seventy two anyway,
so you might as well have aPhD. So she goes, So,
now she's seventy six, so shehas been a professor for four years.
She thinks that's her life. That'sher life, she's a professor.

(39:47):
Well do you remember when you weren'teven I don't even remember that. So
the point is you can change yourfuture by changing your possibilities. You can
do that now. Now, nowlet's go back to your work. You
do a lot of community work too, and I'm a little bit concerned when
I work on the website, podcast, actually on the ground, which is

(40:10):
NGEO people. They're all trying tochange the world or punds a different way,
they lose their energy. One ofthe biggest things that happens that they
tell me they want to hear abouton the radio show is how can they
keep their energy up when they aretrying to do good work in the world.
So how do you do it?Oh? I think it's easy.

(40:32):
Surround yourself with positive people. Youknow, I learned early on that people
seem to fall into three categories whenyou present something new. There are people
who get it right away and say, sign me up, I want to
be part of this. There arepeople who who fold their arms and say,

(40:53):
well, prove it to me.And then there are people who will
never get it, never get thewhat you're trying to acomplished. And you
know, life is too short totry and convince someone who can't be convinced
that they need to get on board. But the other two, the people

(41:14):
who want to be part of thatteam, come on board. You know
we can with your skills, yourabilities, your interests, your desires.
Be around positive people, be aroundpeople who encourage you. There's too many
people who want to bring you down. Oh we tried that, it didn't
work. We'll try it again,you know, well differently. But yeah,

(41:37):
yeah, yeah, but but it'stoo you know, I have a
friend of mine who's now ninety two. She entered into an assisted living facility
and she said to me, youknow, I never experienced agism until I
entered this facility and I and Iwas taken back and um, she said,

(41:58):
yeah, she said. The peoplewho are my peers who live here,
they tell me, ah, youdon't want to Oh she said,
I feel that they're so native towardsme in terms of me wanting to do
something. And that's the thing is, if if we no longer believe that

(42:19):
we can do it, why shouldwe think other people should? Yes,
yes, so true. You know, I've studied with a wonderful woman and
I have a podcast please do lookat our archives or on Apple and it's
called Positive Deviance. And Monica Sterninis the woman with her husband who passed,

(42:40):
who created this concept of social changecalled positive deviance, and it was
taking the positive person and who isdeviant because everybody else is negative. Right
there, and be with him.This is what you say, and be
with him. So she did thisin Vietnam to get children to eat.
She did it in hospitals in theUS to get doctors to wash their hands.

(43:06):
She did it in so many socialchange ways. And then I got
older and I moved. I movedfrom New York City, which is a
very independent place with independent people,to a place where is a gated community.
It's not over fifty five, butit's a gated community, right.
So I decided, I'm going tofind the positive deviance who live in my

(43:28):
community. I'm still looking here.For two years, I'm still looking.
I want to pick a ball,though I got a lot of people pickaba.
Well, there's no question that thereare people who I listen in my
neighborhood. I mean, there arepeople who buy into the fact that you're

(43:52):
supposed to act a certain way whenyou reach a certain age. And they
bought into it. And I can'tfault them for feeling that way because they're
they're bombarded, but with that kindof message in the media, in reality,

(44:14):
and what their children say to them, what their their friends say to
them. It really makes it difficultfor you to climb out of that box
if if you're if you're surrounded bythat kind of negative behavior. And so
yeah, it does take a littleeffort. It does. And that's what
I want to bring out. Andthe effort has been put in by Jeff

(44:35):
Rubin. I want you to golook at his website Wisdom of Age dot
net. I want you to supportsee your moments to get a lot of
information on how to do that onhis website, take a look at his
very inspirational book and videos Wisdom ofAge. And I apologize to my community.
I do know that I deliberately movedinto a community of artists. See

(44:57):
they're all artists, and they arebig artists, big deals, so I
know they're very involl loner, youknow. And I'm not an artist,
so who am I? But thething is that I do find it difficult
to find people who are active,and I suspect that they finally annoying because
and maybe they find you annoying toJim, Oh, go go, But

(45:19):
all right, I have to CanI tell you one thing sure before we
go? I mentioned to you offthe air about an organization that I was
involved with called the Senior Companion Program. This is a volunteer program for low
income older adults to help frail,elderly adult disabled individuals remained independent and in

(45:42):
their own home for as long aspossible. In Marvel's program, been around
forever, happens to be a stipendedprogram, meaning that the low income older
adults who volunteers could get a stipendthat wouldn't count against their benefits, so
there wouldn't be penal volunteering. Butin exchange, they're putting in twenty hours

(46:02):
of service a week helping people remainindependent. It is an incredibly powerful program.
However, what I find, andI find this after so many years,
is people have never heard of theprogram, can't imagine that a low
income individual would have the time orinterest in volunteering. And yet what we

(46:25):
discover here is that they're making adifference in the lives of so many people.
But in reality, not the reality, but in the public's eye,
we don't see that. We lookat older adults as as I say this
many times, as the recipients ofservice, not the providers of service,

(46:45):
and by doing that so we aredoing a disservice to so many people,
because I've watched people come into thatprogram with very little self esteem, they
couldn't even look me in the eye, and in a matter of weeks physically
transform because they had a reason toget up in the morning. They were

(47:06):
helping someone else and they weren't focusedon their own maladies. What a difference
they made in other people's lives byhelping them. They also made a difference
in their own. Fascinating and somethingthat we all can do. Yep.
If you want to be happy,do something for somebody else. Yeah,
so tell me, just give methe name of that organization again before we

(47:29):
sign up. It's the Senior CompanionProgram and it's now under the umbrella of
AmeriCorps Senior Core Program. Fantastic.So I thank you all for listening to
this. I hope you've got somethingout of it that might make you smile.
And everybody, as I always say, get out their kids and make

(47:50):
it happen down