MythBuster: Ambition After 70
They say ambition is for the young. I say: stop treating it like a dirty word.
They Call Me the MythBuster
The other day, I stumbled on a TikTok where a man — let’s call him “young,” though he’s probably in his 40s — declared that people over 70 should just… die. According to him, we contribute nothing of financial value, we’re draining society, and our very existence is in the way of his success.
Well. You can imagine how fast my back went up the wall.
And you know what? I want to thank him. Because he handed me the perfect myth to bust wide open: that ambition belongs only to the young. That after 60 or 70, we’re supposed to sit quietly in the corner, cash our pensions, and fade into irrelevance.
Let me tell you something: ambition doesn’t retire. It evolves.
The Dirty Word Nobody Over 60 Uses
When was the last time you heard a woman over 60 say, “I’m ambitious”?
Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Exactly.
We’ll say we want to stay healthy, maybe we want to “keep busy,” maybe we want to “give back.” But ambitious? That word, apparently, belongs to men in power suits or twenty-somethings hustling at start-ups fueled by oat milk lattes. Somewhere along the line, ambition got quietly boxed up for us. Like, “Thank you, ladies, you’ve done your service—go sit down and knit now.”
Where Did It Go?
We were raised to be nice, not driven.
If we did show ambition, it had to wear the mask of “helping” or “being responsible.”
And then, after the kids leave, after the career chapters close, we’re left asking: ambitious about what?
So the light dims. Not because we don’t have fire, but because we don’t see where to point it.
What If We Reclaimed It?
What if ambition at 65 or 70 looked like this:
Deciding you’re going to impact 10 kindergartners this year by showing up to read them stories.
Declaring you’ll master oil painting just because it lights you up.
Saying, “I want to fall in love again—and I’m ambitious enough to make it happen.”
Ambition isn’t just money or status. It’s daring to want something and go after it.
The Challenge
Tell me one ambition you’ve secretly held, but never said out loud.
Small, big, outrageous, tender—doesn’t matter. Drop it in the comments.
Let’s see what happens when women over 60 stop pretending ambition is a dirty word.
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These are the spaces where women over 60 stop treating ambition like a dirty word… and start daring out loud again.
Well…I took up violin in my 70s, played with a community orchestra. Still play duets with a friend. Then recently returned to playing piano after decades of neglect.
I also do some writing I call poemlets, just describing things I see around me.
I’m 78. In good health. Happy. Grateful.
Never the artistic one aside from being a pianist, I've started sketching birds, and I'm pretty good at it. 😊