Meet J.j. Hubal

We recently connected with J.j. Hubal and have shared our conversation below.

J.J., we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

“I truly don’t know how this happened. This. One day I was young, went to bed, and when I woke up, I was old. That’s how it happens; without warning you’re THERE.” Those are the first words in my book Goodbye Old, Hello Bold: A Joyful Leap into a World of New Possibilities as We Age, and like pretty much all the words in the book I didn’t have to make them up, they were exactly what I was thinking the moment I realized I was THERE and had no idea what to do about it.
Figuring out the road ahead was daunting, but like so many times in my life I knew I had to write my way forward.

At age 72 I wondered if I was up to the challenge, both writing another book and living a meaningful life as someone older. Was writing this book my new purpose—what the 13th Century poet, Rumi, described as the “one thing in this world you must never forget to do”? Was my “one thing” writing and drawing clever pictures for an historic explosion of people who are living longer and refusing to go into old age quietly? Seemed clear the answer was “Yes.”

Like many people I found that every year after turning 50 meant an increasing amount of change and loss that often arrived without warning and needed my rapidly decreasing supply of energy. I also found that most books on aging were of little help to me as many presented extreme ways to deal with getting older from saying I should parachute out of an airplane to telling me to basically sit in my recliner and wait for the Grim Reaper to arrive. I needed something right down the middle of road where I walk with doable ideas that would offset my dwindling personal resources and a growing collection of uncooperative body parts. I decided to write the book myself. And it wasn’t the first time my purpose found me. Ready or not.

The idea of letting go to move forward is as old as humankind. I knew in order to have a clear path to put my purpose in motion I needed to clean out the no-longer useful parts of life to make room for the new. The idea of saying goodbye to old didn’t mean pretending I was 21 again, it meant saying farewell to people, places, dreams, images, expectations that no longer served me but were taking up valuable real estate in my mind, heart, finances, and schedule. For me that meant leaving a familiar town that had become cold and disappointing, a set of friendships that were no longer viable, getting rid of rooms full of things that had lost their meaning long ago. Out with old, in with a new way of living in a new place with total strangers—a place way outside my familiarity zone but offering the warmth and possibility I craved. I moved to Savannah.

Watching the words and drawings for the book take shape, my message became bigger than finding some hope for my own life. I wanted to share the message that energizing new options were still possible at any age. When I found a publishing home for my book I knew my instincts were right. I wrote Goodbye Old, Hello Bold for me, but the real goal became helping others find the perfect fit for their later life hopes and dreams and purpose. If I could do it, anyone could.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

“I write what I live,” has always been my motto and it seems to have worked because now I’m a million-selling author and artist
and my work spans five decades.

Over the past forty years, my husband, Jim, and I have written several books including Living with Your Higher Power (Simon & Schuster), the recovery workbook series which has sold nearly one million copies, and A Week at the Beach (Hachette), a guide to the life-changing power of being near the ocean. I’ve been drawing cartoons since I could hold a pencil and my cartoons and humor essays have appeared in Cosmopolitan, the Chicago Tribune, the Houston Post, the HSUS magazine Animal Sheltering, King Syndicate’s Sunday Woman Plus, and the senior health magazine Thrive, among many others. My cartoons were also used in two lines of greeting cards and are currently sold worldwide through Cartoon Stock. I still draw everything by hand on paper using a light box. Old school rules!

Now after a lifetime of living I’m very excited that my latest book, Goodbye Old, Hello Bold: A Joyful Leap into a World of New Possibilities as We Age (Mango), has launched. I wrote and illustrated the book solo (with Jim’s essential tech help) and am proud that the end result is a high-energy, illustrated mix of humor and hope, empowering insights, and a clear doable way to discover new possibilities at any age.

Jim and I and our rescue cat Mango are happily aging in place in Savannah, Georgia.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I believe facing the challenges of aging requires the same skills needed to face life at any age: resilience, acceptance, flexibility, faith, tenacity, humor, and common sense, but somehow those traits are harder to come by as my circles of support grow smaller and my motivation ain’t what it used to be.

On the bright side, a lifetime of experience has taught me a thing or two. I know that there were times when what I thought I needed wasn’t a need at all but just a personal preference, like thinking I had to publish. Really? Or what—would I die? The older I get the more I realize that hanging around with positive people, and as many people as possible, is good for every part of my health. And I understand why humor is the best medicine especially when it seems all may be lost.

Most importantly I learned I could still find purpose at 72. It truly is never too late and I don’t have to live a would’ve, should’ve, could’ve life.

Years ago an older friend helped me make a decision about whether or not to take a certain job. He said, “I’m positive you can do it, but is it worth doing?” It wasn’t and I declined. To this day I ask myself that question when making decisions of all sizes. It turns out “being a good listener” is an important skill as well.

My hope is that in the end I can pass on a few words of wisdom, or at least some words for thought, to my fellow travelers on this complicated, joyful, frustrating journey called getting older.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

I grew up on the frozen tundra of rural northern Minnesota where my writing and drawing skills were barely noticed, let alone encouraged. To people like my parents being honest, frugal, and working hard with unwavering faith in God was the core of their lives. My brother and I were expected to shovel snow, chop wood, and put snow chains on the tires before taking the car out in bad weather. When I became the first one in my family to go to college (where writing and drawing skills did count) I still knew that in the end doing an honest day’s work, treating people right, and making sure my educated backside was in a pew on Sunday was what truly mattered.

My creative efforts have spanned a lifetime with more than my share of publishing success, but that’s only one thread in a ribbon of life filled with the ups and downs of family, relationships, jobs, health issues, multiple relocation moves, and a bucket load of loss and disappointment. Writing and drawing may have provided an outlet, but my true stability, peace, and resilience cames from a place of deeper quieter faith. I went through the usual young adult rebellion against the ideas my parents planted in me (which I call My Stupid Years), but I still spend the first hours of every day reading my childhood Bible and other inspirational books to anchor myself before turning on my cell phone and letting the world pour in. Childhood habits die hard and luckily for me that one is alive and kicking.

My parents have been gone a long time, but today when I face an audience, pitch a publisher, cold call on a bookseller, or face a blank sheet of paper waiting for me to bring it alive I know that whatever happens next is part of a greater plan even if I don’t always like the outcome. I have choices, but I’m not in control. A relief really. My job is to watch and listen as doors open and shut and keep on stepping into the unknown. In my heart of hearts I will always understand that generating a perfectly turned phrase is only valuable if it helps make someone else’s life better.

My advice to other writers? Never give up, keep creating, and always carry a good set of jumper cables in the trunk of your car when it’s 30 below.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jjhubal.com
• Other: Links to all of my books, my When Seniors Fly podcast, my cartoon gallery on Cartoonstock.com can be found on my website jjhubal.com