Our Resolution: Make 2026 the Year You Take Simple Steps to Encourage Others

This week on the Blog, our focus is on New Year’s Resolutions. We’re considering some actions we can take and decisions we can make to help us lead better, happier, and more purposeful lives in 2026. However, in this particular article, we’re shifting the lens just a bit. Here the focus isn’t on how you can make your own life better – it’s actually on how easy it is to improve someone else’s life by providing support and encouragement.

And it starts with a phone call.

We were intrigued this week to come across this article on the science website Nautilus with the challengingly simple title, “Call Your Grandparents.” The short piece was written by science journalist Kristen French, and it made a powerful point: regular phone conversations between older adults and their grandkids – talking about simple day-to-day activities – have the power to give seniors a greater than expected sense of purpose and a more optimistic outlook.

We’re presenting this article to Blog readers (and to ourselves) as a personal challenge. You may no longer have your grandparents, or even your parents, with you. But if you do – or if there’s someone else in your circle of acquaintances that springs to mind – be aware that a simple phone call from you on a regular basis might make a huge difference. Let’s take a look.

“Have You Spoken with Your Grandparents Recently?”

“Have you spoken with your grandparents recently?” French begins. “If not, and these family forebears are still around, perhaps you should consider giving them a ring. Not everyone gets a close grandparent – or any grandparent at all – but when these bonds exist, they may offer special sustenance for the elders.”

This, she says, is just one finding of a recent study published in the journal Research in Human Development. Washington University researcher Mary Cox wanted to explore how the “far-flung nature of today’s families”—along with greater access to video and phone technology—would affect how grandparents and grandchildren interact.

Researchers Ask, Can Simple Phone Calls Affect Senior Well-Being?

Very little research has actually measured the content of these conversations, Cox noticed: how they are influenced by factors like race and gender, and what impact they have on the health of the grandparents. She and her colleagues decided to find out.

“Despite how important grandparenting is, this is one of the first studies to really ask what’s going on in these conversations,” explains Patrick Hill, a co-author of the study and psychology and a brain sciences professor at Washington University.

Study Follows Adults from Middle Age to “Grandparenthood”

French explains that Cox, Hill, and their colleagues built on the work of the St. Louis Personality and Aging Network study. This study launched in 2007 with 1,600 participants, all in middle age, all residents of St. Louis. Now, 500 of those participants have entered their grandparenting years. The average respondent has 3 grandchildren, and about 7 percent live with a grandchild. Around three-quarters of the study participants were white, and a quarter of them were Black.

“The study found that grandparents who do talk to their grandkids, particularly about everyday subjects like school, friendships and leisure activities, tend to feel more socially useful, a greater sense of purpose, and more optimistic about society,” French writes.

Today’s Grandparents Benefit from Ease of Communication

One of the most surprising findings was that grandparents seem to talk to their grandkids more often today than they did even a generation or two ago.

“The grandparents surveyed said they recall talking less to their own grandparents about almost every topic imaginable—including education, friends, current events, social change, identity, and romantic partners,” French writes.

This could be explained, the researchers say, by the sheer number of technologies available for long-distance conversation these days. It could also be because more subjects are considered socially acceptable to talk about cross-generationally.

But they also acknowledge the possibility that age-related factors could play a role, as today’s grandparents may have forgotten some of the conversations of their early years.

Gender and Race Play a Part in Family Communication

The researchers found that how these grandparent/grandchild conversations go, and how often they take place, is partly determined by race and gender.

“Grandmothers reported talking to their grandkids more than grandfathers did, and Black grandparents talked to their grandkids about identity and race more than white grandparents,” French explains.

But despite these findings, researchers know that there’s more to learn. This study only surveyed the grandparents, not the grandchildren. “We only have one side of the story right now,” Hill says. “What we don’t know is how the grandchildren are thinking of these relationships.”

Still, evidence suggests that these interactions are therapeutically important. French concludes, “Either way, the findings suggest that in our fragmented era, meaning still travels across the generations, conversation by conversation.”

Rajiv Nagaich – Your Retirement Planning Coach and Guide

Rajiv Nagaich’s newest program on PBS, called The Path to Happily Ever After, is bringing Rajiv’s powerful message to Americans from coast to coast. This engaging and challenging PBS show and the accompanying video and workbook are prompting thousands to take a fresh look at the type of planning that will help them succeed in retirement.

What about you?

The Path to Happily Ever After joins other top-selling resources by Rajiv Nagaich, including the book, Your Retirement: Dream or Disaster, and the DVD and workbook, Master Your Future. Each of these is a powerful planning tool in your retirement toolbox. As a friend of AgingOptions, we know you’ll want to get your copies and spread the word.

You’ve heard Rajiv say it repeatedly: 70 percent of retirement plans will fail. If you know someone whose retirement turned into a nightmare when they were forced into a nursing home, went broke paying for care, or became a burden to their families – and you want to make sure it doesn’t happen to you – then these materials are your key to retirement success.

Through stories, examples, and personal insights, Rajiv takes us along on his journey of expanding awareness of a problem that few are willing to talk about – yet it’s one that results in millions of Americans sleepwalking their way into their worst nightmares about aging. Rajiv lays bare the shortcomings of traditional retirement planning advice, exposes the biases many professionals have about what is best for older adults, and much more.

Rajiv then offers a solution: LifePlanning, his groundbreaking approach to retirement planning. Rajiv explains the essential planning steps and, most importantly, how to develop the framework for these elements to work in concert toward your most deeply held retirement goals.

Your retirement can be the exciting and fulfilling life you’ve always wanted it to be. Start by watching, reading and sharing Rajiv’s important message. And remember, Age On, everyone!

(originally reported at https://nautil.us)