50 Things to Do in Your 50s, 60s and 70s

Big ideas, small ideas and a few wild ones. Check what sounds good and skip what doesn't.

Grace Uncommon driving in sunglasses on an open-road adventure

A note from Grace

Somebody once asked me what I was going to do "now." As if the good part was over and I just needed something to fill the time. I've got a list, and it's long. Here are fifty of my favorites to get yours started.

Adventure

1. Take a solo trip somewhere no one knows your name.2. Drive the Pacific Coast Highway with the windows down.3. Spend a full month living abroad instead of a week sightseeing.4. Take a road trip with nothing booked past the first night.5. Sleep under the stars at least once a year.6. See the Northern Lights.

Brave

7. Do one thing every year that makes your heart race.8. Speak on a stage, even a small one.9. Learn to ride a motorcycle and take it on the open road.10. Take a flying lesson and steer a small plane yourself.11. Walk into a party where you know absolutely no one.12. Send the email to the person you've always admired.

Creative

13. Take the art class you were told you weren't talented enough for.14. Pick up the instrument you quit in high school.15. Write the first chapter of the book you keep talking about.16. Learn to throw pottery on a wheel.17. Write your memoir in small stories, one memory at a time.

Your people

18. Start a monthly dinner club with women you'd like to know better.19. Reconnect with the friend you drifted from and don't know why.20. Make a friend who is 20 years younger and one who is 20 years older.21. Plan a girls' weekend with your oldest friends.22. Tell a friend exactly why you love her, out loud.

Work on your terms

23. Start the business you shelved when the kids were small.24. Become a paid consultant in the thing you spent 30 years mastering.25. Build a "portfolio career" of three small gigs you love.26. Interview five women who reinvented themselves after 55.27. Write the job description for the role you actually want.

Body

28. Get strong enough to lift your own suitcase into the overhead bin, easily.29. Try pickleball, rowing or fencing.30. Train for a 5K, then walk or run it proudly.31. Practice getting up off the floor without using your hands.

Mind

32. Learn a language well enough to chat with the waiter.33. Audit a college course just for the joy of it.34. Learn to use AI as a research partner for your next chapter.35. Go back and finish the degree you started.

Money

36. Calculate your actual "enough" number and write it down.37. Open an account that is in your name only.38. Start a "walk-away fund" so you never have to stay anywhere for money.

Gen X throwbacks

39. See your favorite '80s band live before it's too late.40. Go roller skating like it's 1985.41. Make a mixtape playlist for every year of your life.42. Go to a drive-in movie and bring the lawn chairs.

Home and style

43. Create a room or corner that belongs only to you.44. Paint your front door a color that makes you smile.45. Get a haircut you've been too scared to try.46. Stop saving your nicest clothes for "special occasions."

Just for you

47. Take an afternoon nap without guilt.48. Book a night alone in a hotel just to sleep diagonally.49. Go on a silent retreat.50. Write the story of your next 20 years.

1,000Things

Want 950 more? 1,000 Things to Make Your 50s, 60s and 70s Some of Your Best Years Yet covers 20 areas of life, with columns to check "Yes! This sounds cool," "Maybe someday" or "Not my thing," so you finish with your own short list.

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