An ageing male character in a cartoon series defended his ongoing manliness by asserting that he could do push-ups with, well, a certain part of his anatomy that you normally don't do push-ups with. The character reminded me of stories my father used to tell me about a man in the parish who discovered dancing and partying when he hit his 70s and who couldn't get enough of it, following a life of quiet boredom.

Both the cartoon character and my father's fellow-parishioner have this is common with the rest of humanity: the age you feel yourself to be as you get older is likely to be below your chronological age by as much as ten to twenty years. What they also have in common with the rest of humanity is that the experience of old age is, generally, more positive than they had expected when they were younger.

As young as you feel
Recent US research found that most people over 50 say they feel at least ten years younger than their chronological age. This effect continues as people get older. Among those aged 75 and older, one in six feels at least 20 years younger.

Is this denial? I don't think so. The whole concept of what it is to "be" a certain age is formed by the culture that shapes so much of your life and mine. That concept is frequently stubborn and out of step with reality. People in their 70s run and have run whole countries and seem to be no worse and no better at it than younger people - yet it takes anti-discrimination laws to stop some employers from pushing workers out the door in their 50s. The assumption that old people cannot be trusted to perform complicated tasks such as brain surgery or air traffic control would probably find lots of support - yet older air traffic controllers perform as well younger ones because, among other reasons, they know what information to ignore.

And what of the experience of getting older? The US research, and separate, earlier research in the UK found that old age is, on average, a better experience than people think it is going to be. Older people tend to be healthier and less likely to experience money problems than younger people assume. Moreover, they tend to be busier than expected - less time for sitting around and minding their adorable grandchildren for free.

Get the party started
I wouldn't wait around for the world to take these lessons to heart - take them to heart yourself: there's more fun and more achievement to be had than you were told.

I'm not suggesting that you put on the fake tan (the only sort you're going to get this year), the gold chain and the big belly and take yourself off to the nightclubs for the rest of your mortal span. Nor am I suggesting you do twenty push-ups a day with, er... and especially not if you're in a crowded nightclub at the time.

If you want to, that's your own business of course, but the important news is that the older you get the younger you are likely to feel in your mind. Enjoy.

(The research on air traffic controllers appeared in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied and you can read it in pdf format at the website of the American Psychological Association unless you're too busy getting ready to hit the town.)