I meet a lot of people who feel old in the 30s and yet others who don’t in their 60s or 70s. What’s the difference between those people I always wondered until I reached my 40s and began to feel old.
My dad is very young 76 years. He’s up at 6 am, working on chores in the house, doing his morning walks, making tea for the household, filling drinking water (there’s shortage of water where they live) and generally like a hurricane always zipping in and out of places, shopping groceries, running errands, working as a consultant for an aeronautics company. He hops on his scooter like a 25-year old and zips around town and it never ceases to amaze me.
When he visits me with my mom in tow, he hops on my bicycle and hits the trails. He walks to the grocery store that is a few miles away and walks back with sometimes heavy bags. He doesn’t stop. He wanted to sign up for an online data analytics course while he was here for a few months so he wasn’t wasting his time. He’s a trip! But he also inspires me to up my game!
Watching him has made me realize that what keeps us young is growth and activity – keeping our minds and bodies engaged longer. Not letting our jobs or our busy lives slow us down, If we slowdown and let ourselves go, we age – we let our bodies age and we let our minds age. Of course our bodies age and this is inevitable, but staying physically and mentally active has been proven to slowdown aging and keep us healthy and productive much later in our lives.
A lot of us are busy and our lives are stressful. Stress ages us much faster. The high cortisol levels (stress hormone) cause premature aging and it doesn’t help that in our 40s the hormonal changes contribute to it. They have proven that dancing can help with the progression of diseases like Alzeimher’s because it helps rewire neurons and form new neural connections thereby slowing it down.
I think the key to longevity and staying young at heart is two-fold
- Physical Activity – Whether it’s yoga, dance, biking whatever rocks our boat keeping ourselves active is important regardless of our busy work schedules, kids activities and more. Making time to take care of our body even if it’s 30 minutes a day is super important! If we are healthy we are able to take care of the people in our lives better so make time for it!
- Mental Activity – Learning new skills lights a fire inside us! Whether it’s the new course you’ve been planning to take, or a dance class or surrounding yourself with people you’re constantly learning from. While routines are good they also cause us to go into a “mental fog” where we become automatons going from one activity to another without much thought. Make room in your routine for reading, dancing, and any other activity that keeps you engaged.
The old adage of “If you’re not growing, you’re slowly dying” is very true. Being in my 40s I see a lot of people around me slowly down and accepting that they are old. I refuse to. I will NOT let a number define me. As long as I’m moving, growing and learning I keep myself feeling young!
Being in the entrepreneurial world I recently have had a chance to meet a lot of inspiring people who refuse to let the feeling of being old slow them down. I met the amazing John Maxwell recently in a Vegas conference I attended and he’s a very young 72. He spoke about leadership which is his forte but also spoke about how he doesn’t plan to slow down anytime soon! I am convinced seeing him that constant growth and learning and not letting a number define us or our abilities is the key to “productive longevity”.
I spent last weekend in a real estate conference in Dallas learning from a number of great speakers talk about taxes, legal issues, real estate investments and managing money – Tom Wheelwright, Garrett Sutton, Harry Dent Jr, and Robert Kiyosaki. I not only walked away with the knowledge of the specific topic they addressed but also that these people defined to me what “productive longevity” would look like. Busy and doing the things they loved, their minds engaged, they were continuing to contribute to the society even after being Uber-successful in their respective fields. They could slowdown and say “Ah! I’m done, I’ve made enough money or I’ve seen enough success” but they continue on with a zeal that inspires me. They don’t let age slow them down or resign to it. They keep going in spite of it and to me that is inspirational in itself besides the wealth of knowledge they bring!
So here’s to learning, growing and staying young longer and having a productive life where we contribute to our society as long as possible! Cheers!
Please share your thoughts on this topic in the comments below! Would love to hear them!
