In many parts of the world, life expectancy is increasing. Many adults in the U.S. today can anticipate living into their 80s and possibly beyond. Maintaining a high quality of life in one’s later years requires taking steps now to ensure your future physical, mental and financial well-being. With a sound foundation, the second half of life can be just as fulfilling and rewarding as the first.

In this episode, Gail talks with Michael Clinton, author of ROAR: Into the Second Half of Your Life (Before It's Too Late) and founder of Roar forward. Prior to transitioning to the second half of his life, Michael worked for many years in the magazine publishing industry, holding top-level positions with GQ, Conde Nast and Hearst Magazines. He is also a writer-at-large for Esquire and a regular columnist for Men’s Health.

Michael chose to leave his publishing career and devote himself to promoting and advancing what he calls “the new longevity.” People in a number of countries are not only living longer; they are healthier, better educated and better off financially than the elderly of past generations. They can take advantage of many new possibilities in the second half of their lives.

Michael created the acronym ROAR to sum up his blueprint for successfully aging well into one’s 70s, 80s and beyond. It stands for Reimagining one’s life as one ages, Owning your numbers (assessing your current health and financial status), Action plan to realize the life you want for yourself, and Relationships (found to be essential to happy, healthy longevity).

A key to aging well is engaging in activities and endeavors that are fulfilling and help you continue to grow, such as lifelong learning, exploring, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.

Michael offered three observations on how to capitalize on the new longevity:

Release yourself from self-imposed ageism.

Reimagination and reinvention are possible at any age.

You are probably going to live longer than you think.  Are you prepared for that? How is your physical and financial health? Do you have a sense of purpose for the second half of your life?

During their conversation, Michael also talked about how the new longevity is affecting the economy and how interior designers can take advantage of the new longevity 50+ market for renovation, redesign, second homes, and home building. For all that and more, listen to the entire podcast.

If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s10e9-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

For more information about Michael and his book, go to the website for Roar forward at roarforward.com. You can also sign up there to receive the newsletter Michael mentioned at the end of the podcast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnV0HOME314

Episode Transcript

Note: Transcript is created automatically and may contain errors.

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Michael, welcome to the Creative Genius podcast. So I'd love to know a little bit about your background and then what led you to write the book Roar into the second half of your life before it's too late. Thanks, Gail. It's great to be with you and to see you again. Well, I spent about 40 years in the magazine publishing business in New York City. I was the longtime publisher of GQ. Then I was a senior VP, exec VP at Conde Nast. Then I went over to Hearst.

where I was on the team that launched Oprah's magazine and we launched Food Network and HETV and built out a lot of brands. And I was for the last 10 years, the president and publishing director of the company. And I had a great, wonderful career. As I like to say, I was maxed out. I was ready to sort of think about what's next. And as I was doing that, what I was reading and listening to and hearing out there in the world at large was,

Are you going to retire? you going to wind down? you got to like, wait a minute,