Who will take care of me?

Confronting “Who will look out for me when I’m old” compelled me to learn everything I could about self-care and aging well. I logically thought through the hurdles of aging alone to make better choices and take responsibility for my future. I created a framework for aging well today and into the future and am sharing it with you.

There are ten focus areas in my framework. Rate your satisfaction for each of these from 1-5 as they exist for your life today (1 being very dissatisfied to 5 extremely satisfied.)

For each focus area, rate from 1 to 5 how satisfied are you with:

• Health & Fitness -Understanding your family health history, managing your own health and maintaining a healthy lifestyle with a good diet and exercise?

• Housing & Location – Where do you live? Is it close to family and friends, healthcare, and airports? Is it affordable and in your ideal climate?

• Family, Friends & Connections – Social life with connections to friends, family and community?

• Community Support – Your support network where you help others and they help you?

Life Purpose – Your sense of life purpose and finding meaning in life?

• Faith & Spirituality – How are you in your faith and spiritual well being?

• Transportation & Mobility – Your ability to get around by walking, driving or taking public transportation?

See MARAK, page A6

Carol Marak Aging Solo & Smart MARAK

From page A4

• Finances – Your savings, budgeting and ability to live within your means?

• Legal Matters – Your legal and financial affairs and how they are organized, documented, and shared with your proxies?

Fun & Engagement – Your quality of living a fun, joyous and engaged life?

Now, pick one thing to improve– ideally one of the areas which you are most dissatisfied with or concerned about.

What does it look like? What is your prediction if nothing changes? What are the variables that influence your success? Describe what you want the issue to be or to look like in 6 months and in one year?

List the action steps you’re willing to commit to in order to have it.

When addressing the plan approach it by creating a possibilities mindset.

People are trained to focus on problems when making decisions. But ultimately planners need to see possibilities. Start by asking, “What’s the possibility that I see in this situation?” Visualize what you want. Remaining vigorous and healthy requires intention. Know that as you age, health is the most prized possession.

Lean into your strengths.

Having the self awareness of where you are strong and where you have areas of development will help your action plan. Lean into your strengths and find support where you have weaknesses.

Aging Matters is a weekly column tackling everyday challenges that our growing elderly population and their loved ones face, published in a variety of newspapers.