The 12 Good Years

I recently read an article about something called the 12 good years, and I've been thinking about it ever since.

I had never heard the term before. The basic idea is that once we reach 60, we may have about twelve years when we are still healthy and active enough to do many of the things we enjoy doing. Travel, walk, hike, explore, climb stairs, carry our luggage, and generally get out there and do things without our bodies getting in the way too much.

Twelve years.

Twelve years! From 60! 

When I first read that, I thought, that’s not very long at all.

And then, of course, I did the math. 

I’m soon turning 65. At the time we retired at the end of 2019, I thought we had lots of time ahead of us. We had plans. We were going to travel, explore and finally have the freedom to do some of the things we'd talked about doing while we were still working.

Then a few months later, COVID happened.

Needless to say, those first couple of years of retirement didn't exactly go according to plan. Travel came to a stop, and there wasn't much exploring going on either. We couldn't have known how long it would last, or how much of those early retirement years would be taken  up by something none of us had planned for.

Eventually, though, life started to open up again.

And we've certainly been travelling since then.

We've explored a lot of Canada, travelled through Europe, spent winters in the Caribbean, taken cruises and discovered places we'd never been before. This fall we're heading off on another big adventure with our family.

I love it. I love having somewhere to go and something to look forward to.

But this idea of the 12 good years made me think about how I want to spend the next few years. Not because I'm suddenly worried that I have a twelve-year countdown ticking away. I'm not going to start frantically checking things off a bucket list. That's not how I want to live.

But I do think it's easy to put things off when we think we have lots of time.

We'll take that trip next year.

We'll go there sometime.

We'll do that when we're not so busy.

And sometimes “sometime” never comes.

I don't want to put off the things I really want to do if there's no good reason to put them off.

For me, that means travelling while I can. It means taking the trip, even if it isn't the easiest trip. It means walking the trail while I can still enjoy the walk. It means wandering around a European city, climbing the steps, carrying my suitcase and occasionally wondering why I thought this was a good idea! 

It also means remembering that being active doesn't always have to mean travelling somewhere far away.

Some of the things I enjoy most are much closer to home. A day out on our e-bikes, finding somewhere new to explore, taking pictures, meeting a friend for tea, spending time with family or simply getting out for a walk on a nice day.

I don't think the point of the 12 good years is that we should suddenly feel pressured to make every day count.

Some days are meant to be quiet.

I'm quite happy to have a day where I don't do much at all. In fact, I rather enjoy them.  But I also don't want to find myself five or ten years from now wishing I'd done more while I was able to.

So, going forward, I'm going to try to say yes to the things that interest me.

I'm going to travel while I enjoy travelling. I'm going to explore while I'm still curious about what's around the next corner. I'm going to keep walking, taking pictures, making plans and looking for things to look forward to.

And I'm going to try not to worry too much about the number.

Because none of us really knows how many “good years” we have.

Maybe it's twelve. Maybe it's twenty. Maybe it's something completely different.

What I do know is that I'm in my good years now.

And I'd like to enjoy them.