Why Getting Older Might Actually Be the Best Time of Your Life

The Surprising Science Behind Aging Well

Professor Velandai Srikanth is, by any measure, at the top of his game. As director of the National Centre for Healthy Ageing, he has spent decades producing groundbreaking research published in leading scientific journals and securing funding from some of the world's most prestigious scientific organizations. Yet the moment he turned 60, someone casually asked him when he planned to retire.

The question stopped him cold. As a practicing geriatrician, Srikanth understood instantly what he was facing — the deep-rooted stigma of aging, arriving at his own doorstep.

Two Very Different Ways to View Getting Older

In his clinical work, Srikanth encounters the full range of attitudes people hold about growing older. Some view aging as an unavoidable slide into physical and mental decline. Others embrace what is often called the "third age" — the post-midlife chapter of life — as a period rich with opportunity, freedom, and joy.

Research strongly suggests that which camp you fall into matters far more than most people realize. Studies have found that individuals who hold positive views about aging consistently outperform their more pessimistic peers on measurable indicators such as walking speed, memory recall, and cognitive function.

Improvement, Not Just Maintenance

Even more striking is the finding that many older adults don't merely maintain their abilities — they actually get better over time. In one landmark study, 44% of participants showed genuine improvements in both walking speed and cognitive function over an average follow-up period of eight years. Crucially, those who entered the study with an optimistic outlook on aging were significantly more likely to be among those who improved.

Professor Becca Levy, who has dedicated much of her career to studying the relationship between age-related beliefs and health outcomes, admitted she was surprised by the magnitude of the results. Society, she notes, tends to treat older individuals who continue to thrive and grow as rare exceptions rather than as examples of what's entirely possible.

How Positive Thinking Translates Into Real Health Benefits

Researchers used several tools to measure participants' attitudes, including the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale — a questionnaire that asks people to respond to statements such as "The older I get, the more useless I feel" and "I am as happy now as I was when I was younger."

Another method involved asking participants to list five words or phrases they associate with aging. In the United States, negative associations tend to surface quickly, though most people eventually arrive at something positive by the fifth response — suggesting that optimistic views exist but are often buried beneath culturally ingrained negativity.

Professor Julia Lappin, a clinical psychiatrist at the University of New South Wales and Neuroscience Research Australia, explains that a positive mindset generates a ripple effect on behavior. "In being positive, with that comes behaviours that contribute to better physical health," she says. The key principle she highlights is staying cognitively, physically, and socially engaged throughout life — an approach researchers describe as optimizing brain aging.

The Power of Your Environment

Your community plays a meaningful role as well. Lappin points to a kind of informal social motivation that emerges when older adults are surrounded by active peers. Seeing a 93-year-old neighbor walking to the beach every morning can inspire a 92-year-old to lace up their shoes and do the same — a positive version of keeping up with those around you.

Taking Action Instead of Accepting Decline

Professor Kaarin Anstey, a psychologist and director of the UNSW Ageing Futures Institute, highlights another critical advantage of positive aging attitudes: people are far more likely to take action when health issues arise rather than dismissing them as inevitable consequences of getting older.

Consider a sore hip joint. Someone who views aging negatively might shrug it off as "just part of getting old" and do nothing. Someone with a more optimistic outlook is more likely to see a physiotherapist, increase their exercise, or seek other interventions. That single difference in perspective can lead to dramatically different health outcomes over time.

Fighting Ageism — In Society and Within Ourselves

Maintaining a positive personal attitude about aging is one challenge. Pushing back against the broader cultural prejudice of ageism is quite another. Ageism has been described as one of the last widely accepted forms of discrimination — the kind of thinking that assumes a 60-year-old professional, regardless of their expertise and capabilities, must be winding down.

Associate Professor Rod McKay, a psychiatrist from the University of Notre Dame, points out the contradiction in modern workplaces. "We have got an ageing population, we've got people retiring later, yet our discrimination in terms of age and employment hasn't seemingly changed," he says.

The research findings suggest that employers who dismiss older workers may be overlooking candidates who are not only at their peak performance but still have considerable room to grow and improve.

The Happiest Years May Still Be Ahead

Perhaps the most counterintuitive finding comes from Professor Brian Draper, a psychiatrist at UNSW, who states plainly: "The happiest time of life is as you get older."

The data backs him up. In Australia, rates of depression are at their lowest among people aged 65 to 85. Retirement, Draper notes, tends to bring improvements across most measures of personal wellbeing rather than the decline many fear.

While he acknowledges that the body does accumulate wear and tear over time and that none of us live forever, he emphasizes that significant decline often arrives far later than people expect. "You can continue to function and enjoy life, and mentally and physically function well for quite a long time," he says.

The takeaway is clear: how you think about getting older shapes the reality of how you age. Embracing the possibilities of later life — rather than dreading its limitations — may be one of the most powerful health decisions you ever make.