Use It Or Lose It – How Do You Cope With Ageing?

As many of you know, I ride a motorcycle for both work and pleasure, but I never hankered for motorcycling and hadn’t even sat on a bike before. It was more of a fait accompli because we had sold a car, I needed wheels and in a moment of madness, I decided to buy a motorcycle. That was fifteen years ago and now that I’m 67, I’ve joined the ranks of the grey-haired riders who all have different reasons for riding. Many were born riding or they followed their dads’ pursuits, or like me, they took it up later in life.

Then there are others who succumb to peer pressure – their mates ride bikes, or they watched a YouTube video that told them riding keeps them young. I’ve watched dozens of videos of this nature and while it’s true that motorcycling is a unique experience – I often feel as if I’m flying – it got me thinking about how we fill our time in a rewarding way when we retire and/or realise that we’re not as young as we used to be.

How Do You Fill Your Time?

We all handle retirement differently. Some people never really retire and treat it as just another marker to be swerved around. Some welcome it as a break from the shackles of a mundane job they went through the motions of enjoying for decades, being glad to be liberated, and enjoying all the things they always wanted to do. But when that novelty wears off, they drop dead because they ran out of drive and inspiration.

In my case, I write articles for Dave’s Computer Tips and publish books and short stories when I’m not riding for both work and pleasure. Many of our readers are very tech-minded and computer literate, so I would imagine they are go-to people for computer problems and the same can be said about the writers at DCT, including me. In my case, I was playing with PCs before I arrived in Argentina twenty years ago, continued to break them as a hobby, word spread and I ended up fixing broken computers, building gaming machines, and getting paid for something I enjoy.

Although this article isn’t all about me per se and that I’ve reached retirement age, I definitely don’t consider myself to be retired. In fact, like most of us nowadays, I can’t afford to, especially in Argentina. But there’s more than financial concerns to take into account, namely one’s state of mind. Keeping ourselves busy in whatever occupation or hobby it may be in later life, has to extend our life expectancy, surely?

This brings me nicely back to those videos that expound the virtues of motorcycling for the older generation. The same can be said for every pastime, especially those that tax our minds, give us satisfaction, and sharpen our wits. Hence the mantra, use it or lose it. Talking of which, I also play video games, many of which contain puzzles that need to be solved, reactions that need to be razor-sharp, and adventures that require a keen sense of direction.

While some may insist that motorcycling keeps them young and I can see the reasoning behind that – the freedom, the reactions, the required coordination – it’s much more than that and the same can be said for anything that takes us out of ourselves, especially when we’ve joined the ranks of the retired.

What do you think? Please let us know in the comments below.

—