Motivation Diversity Success Blog

#selfimprovement #seniors  —  Some of the local audiences I spoke to over the last year were seniors and a few of these distinguished individuals even asked me if they were too old for self improvement.  During one talk when one older gentleman asked me this, I responded by telling the audience about a senior citizen I saw on the TV news.

This senior is a competitive swimmer and actively competes in the senior masters athletic competitions internationally.  He has already broken about four world records in swimming for the seniors age category and he plans to break at least two more.  The TV news segment showed him during his training sessions at the pool as well.  The really impressive thing here is that at the time of the news segment last year, this man was 100 years old!  My audience was quite impressed by that.

I recently spoke at a local Probus club right here in my own hometown of Mississauga (west of Toronto) and there were about 100 seniors who were all retired.  I did a 45 minute version of my motivational keynote and this group was quite impressive especially for a group of seniors.  They had a huge screen, wireless mic and computer projector all waiting for me when I arrive for the talk.  They were even willing to supply me with their own laptop already loaded with PowerPoint but I told them that I would use my own.

As far as the reception of my talk, it went great.  The way I positioned self improvement for them is that I’m aware that their doctors are probably urging them to get regular exercise in.  Exercise can be one of the major forms of self improvement for the seniors.  I also mentioned that the self improvement content I presented during my talk can also be used for them to help out their own children and grandchildren for their life goals as well.  Most of them accepted this fact as well.

Perhaps the best way to summarize the issue about self improvement and age is by the following email I received from Barbara Saunders, the Vice-President of this Probus club.

“You were like a breath of fresh air.  It is so hard to find interesting speakers, and I must admit that the speaker we had last month nearly put us all to sleep.”

“We may be a group of seniors, but we are a very active, congenial group that want to stay that way.  You gave us inspiration!  You made us realize that we are not too old to have goals.  You made us think about our lives and how we can make them better.  It is always helpful to hear someone elses’ story and how they overcame adversity.  You are living proof that you can grow from adversity and end up having a good life or even a great life.”

“I liked the fact that if you are trying to accomplish something, all you have to do is give 10% more effort.  If you keep that up eventually you will get where you want to be.  Thank you again for coming out and inspiring us all to become better people.”

Barbara Saunders
1st. V.P.
Probus Club Mississauga Centre

It was a real pleasure speaking to this group of seniors and again, you are never too old for self improvement.  For more information on my talks, just go to my section on Speaking Programs and Seminars.