Dare to Be 100

Let’s get one thing out of the way right off the bat: Whether or not you make it to 100 has more to do with what YOU DO than the genes with which you were born.

Bortz tells us that, unless you were born with a rare genetic disorder, whether or not you get to 100 is pretty much up to you (with the obvious exceptions of getting struck by lightning or being in an accident, etc.).

So, quit blaming your genes and start playing your hand well! :)

The paradox of work.

It’s such a weird thing. We feel best when we’re fully engaged in a task. When our skills meet a challenge, we’re in what Csikszentmihalyi calls “Flow.” Yet, for some odd reason, we yearn to be in leisure where we feel way less fantastic.

In Csikszentmihalyi’s words (see Notes on Flow for all the goods!): “Thus we have a paradoxical situation: On the job people feel skillful and challenged, and therefore feel more happy, strong, creative, and satisfied. In their free time people feel that there is generally not much to do and their skills are not being used, and therefore they tend to feel more sad, weak, dull, and dissatisfied. Yet they would like to work less and spend more time in leisure.”

He continues: “Because work is so universal, yet so varied, it makes a tremendous difference to one’s overall contentment whether what one does for a living is enjoyable or not. Thomas Carlyle was not far wrong when he wrote, ‘Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessings.’ Sigmund Freud amplified somewhat on this simple advice. When asked his recipe for happiness, he gave a very short but sensible answer: ‘Work and love.’”

Here’s the deal: If we dare to be 100 (and if we want to enjoy our time regardless of how long we live!), we MUST (!!!) be fully engaged with life—seeking activities that inspire and challenge us.

Are you?

Looking for the key to longevity?

Work.

Work? Yes, work.

Again, we’ve gotta be fully engaged with life if we expect to be around for a long time. That’s just the way nature does it.

So, quit aiming for retirement at 65 and start aiming for meaningful ways to give your gifts to the world NOW.

And for a long, long time. :)

Use it or lose it.

This is another HUGE theme of Bortz’ message. Only, he likes to say, “Use it and grow it.”

We talk about these ideas of re-wiring our brains (and bodies) through diligent, patient, persistent action quite a bit. Check out the Notes on Talent Is Overrated, The Talent Code and Mindset for more goodness on this subject.

For now, let’s remember we’ve gotta use it or lose it. :)

Bortz goes off on 99 ways to get to 100.

This is the most important one. We’ve gotta BELIEVE in 100.

Fact is, if we don’t think it’s even a possibility to be vitally alive at 100 we won’t do the planning and take the actions necessary to make it a reality.

There’s SO much inertia and conditioning about what we can *expect* to have happen to us as we age. If we want to have a good chance of feeling saucy at 100, we’d BETTER believe we can do it.

Do YOU believe you can be healthy at 100?

Being connected is HUGE.

Not just as a strategy to help us rock it to 100, but to enjoy all the moments between now and then.

We know that “Nurturing social relationships” is one of the primary, scientifically proven ways to boost our happiness (see the other 11 in our Notes on The How of Happiness). Jonathan Haidt also talks about the importance of relationships in his great book The Happiness Hypothesis (see those Notes, too) where he tells us: “If you want to predict how happy someone is, or how long she will live (and if you are not allowed to ask about her genes or personality), you should find out about her social relationships. Having strong social relationships strengthens the immune system, extends life (more than does quitting smoking), speeds recovery from surgery, and reduces the risks of depression and anxiety disorders. It’s not just that extroverts are naturally happier and healthier; when introverts are forced to be more outgoing, they usually enjoy it and find that it boosts their mood. Even people who think they don’t want a lot of social contact still benefit from it. And it’s not just that “We all need somebody to lean on”; recent work on giving support shows that caring for others is often more beneficial than is receiving help. We need to interact and intertwine with others; we need the give and the take; we need to belong. An ideology of extreme personal freedom can be dangerous because it encourages people to leave homes, jobs, cities, and marriages in search of personal and professional fulfillment, thereby breaking the relationships that were probably their best hope for such fulfillment.”

So, whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, get out there and hang out! :)

Stress.

It’s at the heart of most of our ailments. As Bortz says: “The chart may read heart problems or stroke, but the real culprit is often stress.”

How about a few great wisdom nuggets on dealing with stress?

In How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (see Notes), Dale Carnegie gives us all kinds of Ideas on how to deal with worry and tells us: “Seventy per cent of all patients who come to physicians could cure themselves if they got rid of their fears and worries.”

Check out the Note for some awesome Ideas. In the meantime, here’s one of my favorites on the power of making a decision to deal with fear. Carnegie says: “Experience has proved to me, time after time, the enormous value of arriving at a decision. It is the failure to arrive at a fixed purpose, the inability to stop going around and round in maddening circles, that drives men to nervous breakdowns and living hells. I find that fifty per cent of my worries vanishes once I arrive at a clear, definite decision; and another forty per cent usually vanishes once I start to carry out that decision.

So, I banish about 90 per cent of my worries by taking these four steps:

1. Writing down precisely what I am worried about.
2. Writing down what I can do about it.
3. Deciding what to do.
4. Starting immediately to carry out that decision.”

David Schwartz also talks about fear/stress in his great book The Magic of Thinking Big (see Notes) where he tells us: “Fear of all kinds and sizes is a form of psychological infection. We can cure a mental infection the same way we cure a body infection—with specific, proved treatments… condition yourself with this fact: all confidence is acquired, developed. No one is born with confidence. Those people around you who radiate confidence, who have conquered worry, who are at ease everywhere and all the time, acquired their confidence, every bit of it.”

And, Tony Robbins (see Notes) echoes Bortz’ wisdom and tells us: “Ten years from now you’ll laugh at whatever’s stressing you out today. So why not laugh now?”

Back to you.

How are you dealing with your stress? What do you do that really works for you? Is it making decisions and taking action? Exercise? Meditation? Gaining perspective? All of the above?! :)

We want to get REALLY good at managing it as we dare to be 100!!

So, let’s rock it!!!

Good stuff!

First, a quick point on the comparison between the use of insulin for diabetics and anti-depressants for depressed peeps.

Giving someone insulin injections for their diabetes and anti-depressant medication for their depression are REactive means of addressing the problem. They “work” at reducing the symptoms but don’t address the underlying problem.

I like to think of it as similar to dropping ice cubes into a pot of boiling water. Sure, that’ll make the water stop boiling for awhile. But if you want to stop the boiling permanently, you’ve gotta go to the cause and turn off the heat, eh?

So, the PROactive solutions to depression are things like exercise, developing an optimistic mindset and stuff like that. The proactive solution to diabetes? Quit eating the junk that’s making you so imbalanced!

Did you know doctors can EASILY get most adult onset diabetics off their insulin within a month? Yep. We’ll save that for a longer discussion (I’ll be working on a Note on Dr. Neal Barnhard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes: The Scientifically Proven System for Reversing Diabetes without Drugs and I’m excited to share!).

For now, a couple more Big Ideas on the power of exercise.

First, I’ve quoted the research from Sonja Lyubomirsky’s How of Happiness a million times where she tells us about research proving exercise to be as effective as Zoloft in reducing depression. And, I love how Tal Ben-Shahar describes NOT exercising as basically taking a depressant. :)

And, I just love this wisdom from John Robbins’s Healthy at 100 (see Notes): “In the modern world, when people are feeling down they are often told to “take it easy,” to simply lie in bed and relax. In both Vilcabamba and Abkhasia, however, people experiencing “the blues” typically respond by becoming active and involved with others. Rather than withdrawing and becoming sedentary, they will walk great distances for the joy of visiting one another. So great is the recognition of the healing power of walking to visit a friend that there is a saying in Vilcabamba that each of us has two “doctors”—the left and the right leg.”

So…

Are YOU exercising? :)

P.S. Dr. Bortz also says this: “The tremendous value that physical exercise provides to your body is established beyond any reasonable doubt. Dr. Bob Butler said, “If there was a drug that provided all the benefits that exercise does, the whole world would be taking it.” Of course, there is no such drug; the value of exercise must come from an activity program of your own devising and accomplishment. You cannot delegate exercise, and you can’t get something for nothing.”

Love this: “Matters of fate have become matters of choice.”