Notions of what it means to age well, positively and/or successfully are central to social gerontological research and practice. As such, one would expect that there is consensus as to what successful aging means and/or how it is achieved. The fact of the matter is that we have neither a single definition of this construct upon which we can agree nor do we have enough insight into the meanings that elderly people themselves attach to it. In this study — which aims to shed light on how ‘cognitively healthy’ elders with minor physical health problems handle the transition that being in need of help and support in order to manage everyday life implies — we have explored the meaning that these elders attach to the construct in question. Through content analysis, we show the different themes that our informants brought up in order to explain what successful aging means to them (such as physical and mental health, social relationships and a positive and optimistic approach to life) and the ways in which these themes are interrelated to one another. Our findings suggests that elderly people understandings of successful aging are constituted of two different types of themes (i.e. one having to do with resources and the other with outlook) and that there are notions of continuity that underlie these themes; notions that suggest, in fact, that to age successfully is to not age at all.