WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO LIVE TO 100?

by Paul Kindzia in Happiness, Health, Longevity

July 17, 2018

“There is a real downside of premature declining health and premature death (that was self-induced through poor lifestyle choices.)  Likewise, there is a real upside to extending your health that leads to a fulfilling life of longevity.  As you know, life is hard, but life can get much easier if you build it upon a platform of healthy habits.  Over time, all those consistent small improvements that you have been making turn into a bountiful bundle of success.  Wouldn’t it be nice to reap the rewards for an extended period?”

There are countless benefits to living a life of longevity.  Here are just a few to think about;

• You learned how to control your time in a fashion that is around your personal desires.
• Money and wealth had the necessary time to compound. It’s like baking a cake.  You could have all the right ingredients and assemble them in the right order, but you still have to wait for the cake to bake.  45 minutes at 350 degrees isn’t the same thing as 2 minutes at 1,000 degrees.  Things don’t work that way.
• You will get to use all of the wisdom that you accumulated from past mistakes and learning.
• You have time to cultivate and accumulate wonderful relationships.
• You have the time to learn, explore, and be curious at the endless wonders of nature or whatever interests you.
• You really “don’t sweat the small stuff” that occurs daily.
• You don’t have to set an alarm or be on anybody’s schedule but your own.

Healthy longevity is the secret to success.  Some may argue along the lines of, “Oh, who wants to live to be 100 years old anyways?”  They imagine themselves sitting in a wheelchair, drooling over themselves while slumped over and waiting for somebody to change their diapers.  The thought of living a life in a nursing home when you can’t even remember the names of your grandchildren doesn’t sound attractive.  And it isn’t.

But aging is a fact of life.  Death is also part of the dynamic.  There is no escaping it.  That doesn’t mean we should rush the process and expedite our demise.  You may end up with dementia in a nursing home, but what if you delayed that reality until you were 100 versus 75?  What if you were like thousands of active centenarians living around the world? (Those are people that live to or beyond the age of 100).

What if you were running marathons at 80?  Or practicing yoga at 90?  Or what if you were playing cards, fishing, dancing, writing books, traveling around the world, golfing, training dogs, hiking, riding bikes, laughing with your friends for decades after you turned 80?

Have you ever looked back on your life in five year blocks of time?  For instance, if you are now 40, you think of what your life was when you were 35, 30, 25, and 20.  I do this often but usually end up with the same conclusion.  I tell myself, “I wish I knew then what I know now.”  That applies to the way I handled relationships, money, time, philosophy, and especially my health.

“The greatest wealth is health.” – Virgil

My life isn’t all regrets.  Far from it.  I don’t seem to regret trying new things, failing, learning, challenging myself, chasing new goals, and exploring all kinds of amazing things.  But I do regret how I treated myself at certain phases of my life.  I regret the way I ate.  I regret the way others treated me and how I allowed that to happen.  I regret blindly following the ideals of others at the expense of my own aspirations and values. I regret saying “I will sleep when I die” instead of letting my body rest and rebuild. I regret working extra hours instead of spending time with friends and family.

But I learned what was truly important to me and what I needed to live my life on my terms.  I needed energy to work hard.  I needed mental clarity to create and be curious.  I needed to be fit to have more self-esteem.  I needed time to participate in activities that were meaningful to me rather than spending all my precious time on items that were only important to others.

One of the things I just love about my job as a wealth advisor is that I get to see what really happens behind the curtains of households.  I’m not talking about what people post on social media.  I’m talking about the real deal of things that go right and wrong in life and the ramifications of certain decisions and lifestyle choices.  It’s an opportunity to learn through the mistakes of others.

I like money as I’m sure you do too.  It’s so easy to believe that money solves all problems and is THE path to fulfillment.  But without health and vitality, nothing else matters.  NOTHING!

One of the biggest mistakes I have seen people make is abusing their bodies and ignoring their health.  If you trade your health for wealth, you are making a GRAVE mistake.  I mean that literally.

“Take care of your body.  It’s the only place you have to live.” – Jim Rohn

With age comes wisdom if you are living a good life.  With age, comes the opportunity to use all the cumulative knowledge and understanding that you have obtained over years and decades.  Some of your greatest work, achievements, and personal breakthroughs can occur when you are in your 50’s, 60’s and well beyond because you have assembled the foundations of success that just took time to acquire.  Extending your health as long as possible gives you the greatest probabilities of achieving success, happiness, and fulfillment.

But what would happen if you reach your peak wisdom years and you don’t have the health to capitalize on those prized assets?  What if you are too tired to keep working?  What if you can’t think straight?  What if you are jacked up on so many medications that your brain function is compromised and cannot create wonderful and unique thoughts?

If you ignore your health, it will eventually ignore you.  That’s just how it works.  What do you see when you look in the mirror?  Do you see somebody that is ignoring their health?  Take care of the body that takes care of you.  It is your greatest asset.  It is your greatest investment.  Protect it.  Nourish it.  Strengthen it.  Make it more robust.  Rest it.  Prepare it for the long haul because if you do things right, your long haul can be filled with years of reaping the fruits of all the previous planting seasons.  And if you do it wrong, not only will you be gone prematurely, but the limited time that you had here on planet earth will be much harder than it had to be.  Full of pain.  Full of regret.

Our “golden years” should be just that – loaded with gold.  Not just financially (although that could easily be part of it too if you work towards it), but the opportunity to create wonderful experiences because you set yourself up for just such a life.  How much fun could you have for decades once you put in the efforts to lay down the foundations?  How much fun could you have RIGHT NOW if you had the health and vitality to conquer your dreams and attack your objectives?

Below are my 7 Principles for Health:

1. Eat healthy (fruits and vegetables – lay off processed and manufactured foods)
2. Exercise – minimum 30 minutes a day. Be active.
3. Adequate Sleep
4. Reduce stress (work to eliminate things that lead to stress and anxiety – toxic people, relationships, money woes)
5. Be cautious of pharmaceutical drugs as they all have side effects. Do what you can to “not need” man-made health drugs.
6. Avoid recreational drugs and chemicals
7. Smoking – yeah right – don’t even think about it.

Below are my Principles for Happiness:

1. Have a positive attitude – smile and laugh if you can. Shift expectations to make sure they are achievable and not frustrating.
2. Engage and pursue work that you find to be productive and meaningful
3. Nurture relationships with family, friends, neighbors and work associates. Limit or eliminate time with negative people.
4. Pursue personal growth (mind, body, spirit). Lifelong learning.
5. Be organized and prioritize activities so that you are spending time on what counts. Focus on things that truly matter.
6. Live in the present moment, have fun.
7. Understand the role of money in your life. How much and why do you need the amount?  We are extremely adapt at turning luxuries into necessities.  Frills become essentials and often people become unhappy because they are without luxuries that they don’t possess.
   1. Fruits of labor sour quickly.
   2. Marketing companies are excellent at positioning goods that appear to be in fixed supply (we think we will enjoy these goods if others cannot have them.)
   3. Happiness is often having control over your time, not possessing more and more things. It’s the ability to control oneself and not be controlled by others or organizations.
   4. People often work themselves into the ground and ruin themselves (and their health) by laying out money on absolutely frivolous and trivial items.
   5. Money spent on life experiences (not things) often brings happiness.
8. As much as we want to live in the moment, give conscious thought to what your last days would be like if you were reflecting on your life. Would you have regrets?
9. Find balance
10. Define your own meaning of life and pursue it.
11. Appreciate what you have.
12. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Sharing and caring counts.

Your future is contingent upon your ability to capitalize on it.  That means your health will be a make or break item at some point.  Life is hard enough as it is.  There is no need to expedite your own demise by punishing and diminishing your greatest asset.

Do I think you can do this?  Yes, I believe in you.  Do you know deep down that you are capable of pulling more out of yourself?  Yes, you know you can give a little bit more and dig in.  You can improve your health and move the ball forward as long as you are taking steps in the right direction making progress bit by bit.  Your goal today is to improve upon who you were yesterday.  If you do that, there’s no telling how far you can go.

Good habits lead to good behaviors.  Good behaviors lead to good decisions.  Good decisions lead to a good life.  Live by principles and choose wisely.