I was thinking about the importance of community recently, and how essential it is to our aging adventures. Neighbors, friends, co-workers, family, professionals — whoever puts their eyeballs on us from time to time, and we them — all play a critical role in our ability to thrive during the Golden Years. In fact, I believe there are seven such people who should be teammates on our journey. Let’s take inventory of these special folks and make sure we have at least one of each on the list. The Seven are:

1. The person you see several times a week who will notice if you’re not there and worry about you, and perhaps check in on you.
2. That unconditionally loving person you can call in the middle of the night for any reason or need.
3. The person for whom you will be the #2 person in reverse.
4. The friend or loved one — or hairdresser! — who will real talk freely with you and provide honest feedback you may not want to hear.
5. The person with whom you trust enough to share your financial information and passwords.
6. THE Person — your durable power of attorney person who can handle your affairs when you’re alive but just, can’t. This person may or may not be Person #5.
7. And an executor person, someone who you can trust to handle your estate when you’re dead and gone and not in charge anymore.

That sound about right? The older we get, the easier it is to shrink back and stop “getting out there” or building your tribe. As we all know, friends mostly…and sometimes family…come and go, and the people who we depended on two decades ago may not be that into you and your baggage anymore. So the moral of the story is, keep looking for new people who are in your life in its current phase and get plugged in. Reach out! Be that “person” for someone else in your sphere. As we age, the more people around us the better.