If You Live to Be 100…
If you live to be 100, what kind of 100-year old will you be?
Are you going to be bedridden and disabled?
Or will you be active and healthy?
In my Flourishing 50s community, I recently shared some wisdom from Marge Jetton, one of the centenarians (100+ year-olds) highlighted in the book we’re exploring “The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons For Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest”.
Needless to say, Marge chose to be active and healthy, which makes it no surprise that she’s made it this far.
She begins each day with a mile walk, a stationary bike ride, and some weight lifting.
Every morning, Marge could easily conjure up excuses like:
“I’m too old.”
“I’m too tired.”
“I have too much to do and running out of time to do it!”
But you see, Marge is, in her own words, “for anything that has to do with health,” so she happily does her exercise routine every morning because health is a value of hers.
Here’s where I believe the real challenge is for you.
We often list our values (the things that are MOST important to us) to be areas like family, financial security, and health.
As a result, you probably spend time nurturing your family…
You probably have a job and maybe some savings funds you regularly contribute to like an IRA, 401K, or other investments…
These are smart moves because you’ll need family and money in the future.
But when it comes to your health and self-care, are you just as diligent?
I’m asking because our values are essentially things we “value” in life.
Marge values her health and she probably has for a long time.
And if you’re in your 50s, you’re about half way to Marge’s age.
Remember, if you’ve been putting your health and self-care on the back burner and putting everyone else’s needs above your own, you have time…
Sure, none of us really knows how much time we have left, but if you want MORE time, like 50 more years of quality life like Marge, then you have to get going.
Even more, if you want to live to 100 and still be as active as Marge, the simple truth is that physical activity must be a regular part of your life.
One of the principles I teach in my ReINVENT Your Health course is that exercise:
- Can’t be too hard
- Must be fun
Because this is really the only way you’ll make it a part of your life LONG TERM.
Marge doesn’t dread, but enjoys her morning exercise routine, as do the other centenarians highlighted in the Blue Zones.
The reason they keep this amount of physical activity up, again, is because it’s not too hard, and they find it fun.
The driving motivation, however, is that health is a core value – they have experienced the benefits and have decided it’s worth their time every day.
Is it worth YOUR time?
My challenge to you is to consider how you can and will:
1. Make HEALTH a core value (and really mean it)
We teach kids that words without actions are meaningless.
The same is true for us when it comes to declaring that our health is a value of ours.
Maybe you don’t go around actually saying that, but I’m sure you say (or at least think, or else you wouldn’t be reading this), that your health is important to you.
Well here’s your chance to make your actions congruent with your words.
Listen, sometimes other values take top priority – not everything can be #1, but maybe health has fallen to #… let’s just say, way down there on the list.
If your health is not one of the MOST important things in your life right now, that’s okay – no one (including me) says it has to be.
The first thing I learned in coaching is that if someone wants to make a change, they have to be ready, willing, and able.
If you’re not ALL of these, then it’s probably not going to happen, at least not right now.
The hope is that nothing harmful happens that forces you to make health a priority.
Remember: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” – Ben Franklin
So again, if you’re not ready, willing, or able today, that’s okay.
But if you, like Marge, our highlighted centenarian, are ready to also be “for anything that has to do with health,” please read on.
2. Make exercise not so hard
The more regularly you exercise, the less hard it has to be.
So perhaps instead of killing yourself once in awhile with a super-hard workout, you find physical activities to do that aren’t so hard.
I’m sure that by now, walking a mile, riding the stationary bike, and lifting some weights aren’t that hard for Marge; but even so, she reaps the rewards because she’s so consistent.
What kind of physical activity can you start incorporating into your life that isn’t TOO hard (so that you keep doing it)?
3. Make it FUN
We’re more likely to stick to things we enjoy, so think about how you can make physical activity fun.
One of my clients loves spending time with her grandson.
They swim, go to the park – they even did a ropes course together!
Getting OUT of a stale, stinky gym is good for our soul from time to time, so consider what you can do to infuse more PLAY in your life.
What makes it even better is when you do it with someone you love, like my client with her grandson.
Could you come up with something fun that you and your friends/sister/grand(daughter/son), niece/nephew, co-workers, etc. could do together? Or ask some of your favorite people what THEY would enjoy doing with YOU.
It’s Your Turn to Take Care of You,
P.S. Want to join the Flourishing 50s community and continue the discussion on LONGEVITY through the Blue Zones?
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