Threshold Consulting: It's Your Life, Own It!

Thrive with a Little Help from Your Friends

There is a long-standing view that when Lennon and McCartney penned the words, “I get by with a little help from my friends,” they weren’t referring to people. Nonetheless, they hit upon an important truth: we all get by with a little help from our friends. In fact, it seems that we could all get to thrive with the help of our friends.

Based on research on aging, it is clear that friends are an important lifestyle factor. Quite simply research supports the fact that, on average, people who have lots of social support (read “friends”) are healthier than people without it. Moreover, frequent visits with friends and attendance at meetings or group functions are considered productive activities. Oh, and productive activities?  Participation in them is another factor in aging successfully.

Speaking of productivity, research has shown that employee satisfaction goes up 50% when people have at least one close friend at work. In the same study, it was also discovered that:

Finding Balance in Your Work Life

I just read an article about how much Americans hate their jobs. Turns out that less than 45% of individuals aged 45 to 54 have these feelings. With workload noted as a major source of distress, my first thought was of work-life balance, a problem of job stress as much as a matter of time management. No picnic either way.

As many folks have interpreted it, having balance between work and life means having more time for life outside of work. Yet, life outside of work has its fair share of, well, ... work! Having a life also requires doing things like shopping, household chores, meal preparation, and child care. Work. Work. Work.

Feeling overwhelmed?

Lifestyle Factors

No matter where you look, these days, it’s hard to avoid media focus on Baby Boomers. While financial planning, retirement, and even second careers are dominant themes, there are countless others. Based on what I read, it seems that Boomers will single handedly reinvent America and never age. We are an ambitious lot, with big goals. Still, I wonder about the anti-aging thing.

Given the wide array, and appeal, of anti-aging products and services, it’s clear that a lot of people want to look and feel young. While I can certainly understand that urge, I wonder about the extent to which people may be missing out on something even more important: aging successfully. Okay, successful aging certainly doesn’t offer the promise of eternal youth, but it seems to me it has great relevance to your well being no matter where you are on life’s journey.