FOR US Baby Boomers, those wildly diverse thoughts that raced through our minds in the ’60s surely did not include the notion of actually turning 60.

Now that the milestone has been passed by many Boomers, and is in clear sight for the rest of our cohort, I find that the occasion invites deep reflection, far more so than the trifling hurdles of 40 or even 50. And like others of my generation, I find myself contemplating messages to impart to younger people, and strategies to employ as they and we gird up for the future.

Of the many lessons born of experience that I hope younger generations will consider, two immediately come to mind. The first is to become a lifelong learner. The second is to become a lifelong athlete.

Learning, of course, can be achieved in many ways, but reading is essential. French novelist Marcel Proust once wrote: “Reading is a kind of sanctuary where human beings have access to thousands of different realities they might otherwise never encounter or understand. Each of these new realities can transform your life.”

The second lesson complements the first. Parents of young athletes should attend to an objective often lost in the mad sprint to trophies or scholarships: becoming a lifelong athlete. Being a lifelong athlete need not equate to club championships but it does equate to a state of fitness, which, in turn, equates to a state of equanimity — to a joy of life.

As for silverbacks like me, the essential objective is to stay relevant, and to understand that we have abundant opportunities to do so. Many of us have equated our self-worth, at least in some degree, with career accomplishments. While some Boomers can look forward to ever greater career success, for the majority, career accolades will inevitably give way to new and different goals that, I hope, will extend beyond leisure.

Using our own experience, one goal can be to help younger generations learn to respond proportionally to adversity — to develop the properties of resiliency — because we now know that a full life is not devoid of failure, disappointment or even great loss.

We also know that much of who a person becomes in adulthood results from conditions or factors a teenager or young adult cannot fully understand, let alone control. Young people, even those in their 20s and 30s, need our mentoring; and this includes our own children, for parenting does not end when a child reaches 21; it simply evolves from daily oversight to broader guidance and support.

Another opportunity in front of us is to rediscover the idealism that defined our youth and that may have yielded — at least in some measure — to pragmatism. Our sustenance can come from our selflessness. Our good deeds can benefit our families, youth leagues, charities and churches. These deeds or projects need not be large; rather they can simply create a “chipping effect” that steadily dissolves a problem or challenge. We can reconnect with old friends, pay daily attention to fitness of mind and body, add a greater spiritual dimension and reacquaint ourselves with the old saying that it is far better to be kind at home than to burn incense at a distant temple.

As I presume to offer advice to younger generations, I think about an earlier generation, called “The Greatest Generation,” to whom I turn for inspiration. For 12 straight years, my former coach and lifelong mentor, Dee Rowe, has taught a winter-session course at Middlebury College in “Sport and Society.” I have joined him each year as a guest lecturer. In every visit, students have approached me to say how much Dee’s message of fair play and resolve has inspired them.

In 1976, Dr. Bob Butler won the Pulitzer Prize for his book Why Survive?: Being Old in America. More than three decades later, and with equal measures of acumen and enthusiasm, Bob is working with my Institute for International Sport on the development of a national walking campaign to combat obesity.

Both men have me by one score in age and by ten score in wisdom. Both cause me to look at 60 not as precipice but as launching pad.

Daniel E. Doyle Jr. is founder and executive director of the Institute for International Sport at the University of Rhode Island and author of The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting. He turned 60 on Jan. 14.