The Ten Steps of Positive Ageing: A handbook for personal change in later life

by Guy Robertson

Ageing is inevitable – but getting 'old' is optional! We can make a difference to our ageing process – just as we have to learn to grow up, so we have to learn to grow old.

Here is a route map we can all follow to find a way through the changes we face as we age, and a toolkit of exercises to help us follow our chosen path and fulfil our potential.

Ageing has got a really bad press but is it really as bad as much of the media make out? And is there anything we can do to make our later years happier and healthier? In this handbook Guy Robertson assembles the case for the defense and explodes some myths along the way. Getting older is not all bad! Indeed the reality is much more positive than many of us could imagine.

Find here ten steps that anyone can take to improve the likelihood of living a happy and satisfying life in old age. Research shows that how we think about ageing can have a very significant impact on our health and wellbeing in later life. Concentrating on the psychological and emotional aspects of ageing, these clear practical exercises will empower the reader to engage in a programme of personal change.

Genres: Nonfiction

225 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 5, 2020

About the author

Based in Vancouver, Canada, Guy Robertson is a senior instructor at Langara College, where he teaches library history, reference and readers' advisory services, and records management. He is also an instructor in information security and risk management at the Justice Institute of British Columbia. He works as a consultant to organizations across North America, and has provided advice and services to libraries, archives, records centers, and museums in Europe and Asia. Mr. Robertson is noted for his research into book and manuscript theft, data loss and protection, and financial fraud and forgery. He has delivered keynote speeches, seminars, and workshops at conferences not only for librarians and archivists, but also for other professional and technical groups.

Reviews

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book with plenty of suggestions, the majority of which are just common sense, really. However, there are some interesting statistics that can help brighten up your outlook about aging. Would I buy this book? Personally, no. Would I lease it from a library? Yes.

[Kasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brilliant handbook for anyone navigating their feelings on ageing. Whilst Obviously aimed at a more mature audience of people in their later years than someone in their 30s, I found this an insightful and engaging read.

I'm just becoming conscious of my own ageing noticing changes to my skin and having decided to embrace my grey hair and grow it out in my late thirties. I chose to fo this and embrace who I was after realising that grey hair is much more common from a younger age than we realise because we are taught ageing is bad and we must do everything we can to stop it.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever had a negative thought about ageing. It's filled with uplifting statistics, stories and information about ageing and there are numerous activities to complete throughout to check your own thoughts and attitudes on this topic. It turns those negative assumptions about ageing on their head and left me feeling positive about my own future health and wellbeing.

Embracing how we change and adapt as we grow older has to better than believing the negative images of older people. Plus it's quite freeing stepping away from expectations of society on youth being aspirational to all, I for one love who I'm becoming as I get older and I will embrace ageing full of positive thinking.

[Deb Kingston · Rating 5 out of 5]

With a few things going on in life around me lately, as to negative ageism thoughts, actions and just plain as day giving up attitudes, this book title jumped out at me from the library shelf.

It is a delightful and positive read with a wealth of commonsense practicalities to offset all the ageist attitudes and mindsets people have to listen to and put up with in society today. I would highly recommend to everyone ‘over the hill’ and going down fast, because of others attitudes to ageing to read this little book and close their ears to unhealthy ageism.

Long live health, live long and prosper

[Jacqui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, easy to understand and makes a lot of sense. A good handbook.

[Melanie Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. Common sense when you think about it but good to review!