Happiness and Getting Old

So there is one thing we have no control over and that is the march of time. We are all getting older all of the time and eventually we will all get old. It’s also coming faster than most of us are willing to admit. There is a meme on the net lately that I really like:

This meme explains a simple truth that I have always known. One of the reasons that I started my process of quitting every three years and traveling from six months to two years before working for another three years and then doing it again, was that I understood this and I wanted to do things that I wasn’t sure that I would be physically able to do if I waited until I retired, which at the point I started was looking like 65 or 70 at the earliest.

Recently, due to my open-heart surgery, I got a taste of what it’s like to be much older. For a couple of months, I wasn’t able to physically do, what I normally could do. Initially, I could only walk short distances, I couldn’t bend over, I could only sleep on my back, I had absolutely no upper body strength. It meant that I needed help with almost everything, couldn’t drive, couldn’t grocery shop or move anything around in my apartment. It was an incredibly humbling experience and it’s not over. The main injury from the surgery is that they cut my breastbone in half and so effectively I have a broken sternum. This means it will take six months before I’ll be fully back to speed. This has really made me think about getting old. And at sixty I’m not far off from being at an age where my limitations will start to add up.

We’ve all seen “old people” at the grocery store. Walking slowly and seeming fragile, having a hard time concentrating and paying at the register, asking that they only include an item or two in each bag. You know that they have no one at home to help them bring in the groceries, you feel sad for them. But that will be most of us eventually.

So there are two lessons in this my friends for your happiest life.

First, do the things that you want to do, don’t wait, there is a time coming where you might not be able to physically do them. Don’t fall prey to the idea that your fifties are middle age, they’re not, so don’t put things off until your fifties or sixties.

Second, move, exercise, strength train, don’t let your body get weak. While you can’t permanently put off aging and decline, you can definitely slow it down by being in better physical shape. And it’s never too late to get started, you can always get stronger and more flexible, can always improve your cardiovascular health. You can start small, any exercise, any training will make you better. I want you all to get to follow your dreams and be physically ready enough to do them. It will help you have happier days my friends. ~ Rev Kane