A man in his late sixties fixed a broken café chair with just a coin, a keyring, and a kind of calm that wouldn’t give up a few weeks ago. Younger people were already filming the “fail” for Instagram around him. They were angry and laughing at the same time because they had to stand.
He didn’t say a word. He just grumbled, “They don’t make them like they used to,” tightened a screw with the coin, checked the chair’s balance, and then sat back down with a quiet sense of satisfaction that filled the room.
I could tell he didn’t care. There was no rush, no drama, and no hope that someone else would fix it.
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The quiet strength of people who were always comfortable as kids
Psychologists often use the word “resilience” when they talk about people who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s. Not the kind of bravery you see in movies. One that looks like it might be boring from the outside.
A lot of them learned how to deal with pain without using that word. They walked to school in the rain, waited weeks for a letter, and had to share one phone and three TV channels with the whole family. Their nervous systems grew up without getting a lot of notifications and small rewards all the time.
That doesn’t mean they’re “better.” They were just wired to wait, be patient, and not get quick fixes.
A therapist I talked to told me about what a normal session with a client born in 1955 would be like.
He came in after he lost his job at 64.
He was worried because his wife was sick and he didn’t have much money saved up.
But the way he talked was different from what she was used to.
Don’t say things like “I’m broken” or “I can’t take this.”
He said, “I’ve been through worse.” Not a miracle, but a plan.
He got a part-time job, stopped spending so much money, and started volunteering at a repair café.
By the time they were done with therapy a few months later, his life wasn’t very exciting.
It was just back to normal.
Psychologists say that this way of dealing with problems is linked to something simple: dealing with small, easy problems over and over again while the brain was still growing.
Power outages, oil shortages, strikes, parents who worked long hours, and toys that broke and stayed broken.
These kids had to deal with being bored and angry.
That constant low-level challenge changed the way the brain works for calming down, solving problems, and seeing things from different points of view.
These days, a lot of those little problems are taken away on purpose.
Apps, services, and endless entertainment come to the rescue before you even have a chance to get angry.
We make things easier, but we also slowly get rid of the mental “callus” that older generations built up without even knowing it.
9 mental strengths that people born in the 1960s and 1970s have but don’t talk about
Psychologists who study patterns across generations don’t make the past seem better than it was.
They see both strength and pain.
But when they talk about people who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, they keep bringing up nine mental muscles.
First, a lot of patience.
They are used to waiting for money, news, and deliveries.
It’s not a big deal to wait.
Second, not a lot of drama.
It was normal to be mad, not a brand.
You didn’t tell everyone how you felt all the time, so your feelings didn’t define you.
Third: “good enough” thinking.
The goal was to look perfect for wedding photos and Sunday clothes.
Not everything in life was planned out.
Fourth, a way of thinking about fixing things.
If something broke, you tried to fix it before throwing it away.
The default setting was not “What should I buy next?” but “How do we save this?”
Fifth, the privacy of feelings.
People used to write in journals, letters, and talk late at night instead of sharing too much online.
People felt more at ease with silence and taking their time to think when they talked about their feelings in smaller groups.
Sixth: putting an emphasis on commitment.
You worked longer, stayed married longer, and spent more time with your friends.
Yes, sometimes too long, but the need to run away at the first sign of trouble was much weaker.
Seventh: being able to deal with being bored.
Long car rides, waiting rooms, and afternoons with no plans.
Those empty spaces made people daydream, be creative, and be open-minded in a way that is hard to find now.
Eighth: being hopeful based on what is real.
They saw a lot of changes in society, like civil rights, women’s rights, and awareness of the environment.
They saw that things could get better after years of pushing.
This gave people hope, but not a sense of entitlement. Hard work was linked to hope.
Ninth, a strong sense of self that isn’t based on how well you do.
It didn’t mean “I’m a failure” right away when I got a bad grade or had a bad day.
Roles, values, and relationships had a bigger impact on self-concept than preferences, scores, or metrics.
To be honest, no one has all of these strengths every day.
But when you put them all together, they make a quiet mental toolbox that most people don’t know how to use in their daily lives.
Psychologists are now interested in how we can learn these skills again on purpose.
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How to get back those “old-school” strengths in a world that moves too quickly
You don’t have to have been born in the 1970s to use some of its brain wiring.
Therapists often suggest small, almost silly-looking habits that slowly rebuild the same muscles.
One of them is “intentional waiting.”
Pick one thing each day that you won’t get better at, like standing in line, walking instead of riding, or not keeping track of the delivery.
Don’t reach for your phone if you want to speed things up.
Fixing one small thing each week is another good tip.
Tighten a screw, fix a broken mug, or sew up a sock.
You’re not only saving things, but you’re also teaching your brain how to solve problems.
When people have trouble with things that their parents seemed to handle easily, they often feel bad about themselves.
That guilt is too much and doesn’t help.
You didn’t have the same things going on in your head or the same stressors.
Start where you are.
Choose one thing to do, like talking about your relationship for five more minutes or not replacing an appliance as soon as it starts to squeak.
Little things you do to stay put build commitment more than big promises.
A lot of people make the mistake of turning this into a new project for perfectionism.
You don’t want to look like someone from the 70s.
You’re picking tools that fit your needs, your values, and your schedule.
A lot of the time, psychologists tell their clients this simple idea:
We can’t go back in time, but we can learn from the good things that happened back then.
When life feels too fragile to be real, here’s a small “mental strengths” toolbox you can use:
Take a moment to wait on purpose every day.
Make one thing better or change how you use it every week.
Keep one part of your life to yourself and out of the public eye.
Set aside time each day to do nothing and not use screens.
Spend five more minutes than usual on one hard task.
Ask an older family member how they got through a hard time and really listen.*Generational wisdom isn’t something to look at in a museum; it’s something to use. Older people, especially those who grew up without constant comfort, are often happy to share it if you ask.
The surprising good thing about looking back to go forward
You won’t just hear nostalgia if you really listen to people who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s.
You hear plans.
Handling things without using the word “coping.”
Many of them are shocked to see that what they thought was “just normal life” now looks like something they read in a psychologist’s book about emotional training.
Long-term thinking, being okay with feeling bad, and not telling everyone about your worries until they aren’t as bad.
You don’t have to agree with everything that era stood for to see that its limits made some things stronger.
The question is not “Were they better?”
The question is, “What did their world teach them that mine doesn’t?”
Right now, our culture values speed, self-expression, and making things your own.
That really helps with mental health, for people who are on the outside, and for everyday life.
But when you share every feeling, take away every discomfort, and see every delay as a design flaw, something is lost.
The mind gets less used to being with things that hurt but don’t hurt.
Not as good at telling the difference between a bad day and a bad life.
It’s strange how good it feels to get those old strengths back.
Not having to go through more pain.
To be less scared of pain.
Think of a mix of the emotional language of today and the hard habits of the past.
Therapy apps and neighbors who lend you tools.
Take care of yourself, but also believe that you can handle one more wave.
Even if you were born years after the 70s ended, you can still get that mix.
It starts with small things that would have seemed normal at the time, like waiting, fixing things, staying, and listening.
That might be the secret of that time.
They didn’t want to be “mentally strong.”
They just went through tough times that made them stronger. We can still use some of that strength if we’re okay with life not being perfect all the time.
| Main Point | Detail | What the Reader Gets Out of It |
|---|---|---|
| Resilience is developed, not gifted | Childhoods in the 60s and 70s often included small setbacks, delays, and everyday challenges | Helps you view current struggles as skills to build rather than fixed limitations |
| You can adopt old-school habits | Practising patience, fixing things yourself, and tolerating discomfort strengthens mental endurance | Provides practical ways to build “vintage” resilience in modern life |
| Blending generational strengths | Combining present emotional awareness with past coping toughness creates balance | Offers a healthier response to overstimulation and emotional shutdown |
Questions and Answers:
What kinds of mental strengths do people who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s usually have?
Question 2: Can younger generations become just as strong without having to go through the same things?
Question 3: Isn’t this just making the past sound better than it really was and ignoring the problems that were there?
Question 4: How can I learn these strengths if my parents didn’t teach them to me?
Question 5: What is one simple thing I can do this week to make these “old-school” mental muscles stronger?
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