“At forty, life is just beginning,” said the main character of the famous film. Business coach Nina Zvereva agrees with her and is thinking about where she would like to celebrate her 80th birthday.
During my youth and youth, I stayed in Moscow at the house of my mother’s friend, Aunt Zina, Zinaida Naumovna Parnes. She was a doctor of sciences, a famous chemist, the author of a world discovery. The older I got, the stronger our friendship became. It was interesting for me to listen to any of her statements, she managed to turn my brains in an unexpected direction.
Now I understand that Moscow aunt Zina has become my spiritual teacher, her wise thoughts have been absorbed by me forever. So. She loved to fly to Paris, and she specially learned French in order to communicate with the Parisians. And after the very first trip to her own elderly aunt, she arrived shocked: “Ninush, there are no old people there! There is the concept of «third age». People of the third age immediately after retirement and until old age go to exhibitions and museums for free, they study a lot, they fly all over the world. Ninush, our old age is wrong!”
Then for the first time I thought about the fact that life can be beautiful not only at 30 or 40 years old. And then there was no time to think about age all the time. Life gave me a difficult task — to master a new profession. I moved away from television and became a business coach. I started writing textbooks on practical rhetoric and books on parenting. Almost every day I run around the audience with a microphone in my hands and help young people find their communication style and learn how to present themselves and their project in fun, short, understandable words.
I really like my work, but sometimes age reminds me of itself. Then my hands hurt and it becomes difficult for me to write on the board. That comes fatigue from eternal trains and planes, from separation from his native city and beloved husband.
In general, one day I suddenly thought that I was spending my third age absolutely wrong!
Where are the exhibitions, museums, theaters and language learning? Why do I work so hard? Why can’t I stop? And one more question: will there be a calm old age in my life? And then I decided to set the bar for myself — at the age of 70, stop conducting trainings, focus on coaching and writing books. And at 75, I want to completely change the format of my crazy creative life and just start living.
At this age, as far as I now understand, living in joy is not at all easy. It is necessary to save brains, and most importantly — health. We must move, eat right and cope with the problems that overtake each person. I began to dream about my fourth age! I have the strength and even the opportunity to organize today the conditions for a wonderful life in old age.
I know for sure that I don’t want to load my children with my problems: let them work and live the way they want. I know from my own experience how difficult it is to live in constant fear and full responsibility for elderly parents. We can organize our own modern nursing home!
I dream of selling an apartment in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, gathering friends, settling in a beautiful place. Make it so that each family has its own separate house, but medicine and services are shared. My husband quite rightly remarked that our children should create a supervisory board — what if our sclerosis comes earlier than we would like?
I dream of a large comfortable cinema hall, a winter garden and walking paths
I need a good cook and comfortable kitchens in every compartment — I will definitely cook until the last minute of my life! We also need good guest rooms for our children, grandchildren and those friends who for some reason do not want to settle in our boarding house — they will regret it, so additional houses or apartments must be provided in advance.
The funny thing is that these thoughts not only do not plunge me into sadness or sadness, but, on the contrary, carry me away and excite joy in me. Life is long, that’s great.
Different stages of life provide different opportunities for the main thing — the feeling of the joy of being. I have two very young grandchildren. I so want to attend their weddings! Or, in extreme cases, record a funny video greeting, sitting next to your husband in the winter garden in a beautiful favorite place. And raise a glass of champagne, which will be brought to me on a beautiful tray.
And what? Dreams can only be realized if they are ambitious, but specific and desirable. Moreover, I still have time. The main thing is to live to the fourth age, since I deliberately refused the third.