From Judith:
As the United States approaches the 2016 presidential elections, adversaries of Hillary Clinton are already starting to throw out ageist propaganda. Citing the fact that if elected Hillary, who was born October 26, 1947, will turn 70 while in office. Curious that they seem to forget that Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 at the age of 69.
But here’s the central question: Is 70 really old? Or another way to put it: Is the way Hillary approaches her life going to make her “old” at 70?
The fact is that Hillary is far from old and 70 is going to be very attractive the way she will wear it. After all, she’s been the “first woman” to do all manner of important things—from being the first student commencement speaker at Wellesley College in 1969 to, in 1978 becoming the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation, and in 1979 the first female partner at Rose Law Firm. Clinton was also the first female Senator from New York state.
Does this sound like someone who is going to be “old” at 70? Of course not. Hillary is a vital, determined woman who already has far more experience with the challenges of leadership than most anyone the Republicans can run against her.
But, from my personal bias, she’s also a perfect role model for what being professionally young at 70 looks like.
Now let me be transparent. I just celebrated my 70th birthday in December. So I’m 70 and two months to be exact. But I feel more like 40 whatever that means. I work with my husband Jim Sniechowski, PhD more than full time between all of our clients and writing and speaking and product development for our line of “Overcoming the Fear of Being Fabulous” personal and professional development series. Old at 70? I’ll match my energy, determination, and mind-brain-ability-and-focus against most 40 or 50-somethings any day.
So is Hillary too old to be President? No way. That is unless you think I’m too old to be passionate and doing all that I do every day, seven days a week.
After all, one of the reasons I’m so comfortable with all that I’m involved in professionally is that I’ve long ago sowed my “wild oats,” long ago gotten rid of fantasies about “what it’s like over there,” and long ago stopped chasing the next “glittery attractor.”
And, as best I can tell, Hillary likewise has her feet solidly on the ground of reality, ready to take on the unenviable tasks of—in many instances—doing what will be widely unpopular but required and necessary in order to move the well-being of the United States forward.
What do you think?
Judith Sherven, PhD and her husband Jim Sniechowski, PhD http://JudithandJim.com have developed a penetrating perspective on people’s resistance to success, which they call The Fear of Being Fabuloustm. Recognizing the power of unconscious programming to always outweigh conscious desires, they assert that no one is ever failing—they are always succeeding. The question is, at what? To learn about how this played out in the life of Whitney Houston, check out http://WhatReallyKilledWhitneyHouston.com.
Currently working as consultants on retainer to LinkedIn providing executive coaching, leadership training and consulting as well as working with private clients around the world, they continually prove that when unconscious beliefs are brought to the surface, the barriers to greater success and leadership presence begin to fade away. They call it Overcoming the Fear of Being Fabulous http://OvercomingtheFearofBeingFabulous.com.