Sometimes you hear something that makes a penny drop.
You see, yesterday I was listening to an podcast about longevity and the point was made that a lot of us will live to well over 100. 120, 130…seriously. This factoid changed my day. I’m still carrying with me the tingle off the bouncing coin.
Three things:
1. Given I have, potentially, 90 years left to go, then WHAT’S THE BLOODY RUSH? Why not back off a little? Take my time. My God! Yes! I don’t have to achieve it all by 40. I’ll need to save some fun for when I’m 80. You can’t begin to understand what a load off my being this is. Or perhaps you can? Most of my pain and discord comes from rushing…and feeling time is slipping past me. There is another way to look at this. Quelle relief, hey!?
2. If the secret to living longer is to be well and to eliminate stress as much as possible (and it is – Dan Buettner’s work on centenarians proves this), then Point 1 applies doubly so…back the fork off!!! Let’s pace ourselves. It’s kind of perfectly ironic, isn’t it. To live longer so we can justify stressing less, we need to stress less.
The clear message: just choose to start stressing less. Be gentle. Choose wellness.
Because, of course, not everyone will live to 130. In fact, the world is likely to be quite starkly divided into those who die young (obesity, heart disease etc) and those who don’t.
3. If we’re going to be on the planet so long, then it might be a good idea to actually do something that makes us happy. Something that makes us happy, as opposed to something that has to be perfected, mastered ASAP so we can buy that house ASAP and kick goals before we rust and die at 62.
All good wake-up calls.
* Two hundred years ago life expectancy was in the late 30s, 100 years ago it was in the 50s or so. Now it’s roughly 80. That’s average.
* In the US there are 70,000-plus people who are over 100…50 per cent more than just a decade ago.
It’s a choice, not an inevitability, all this. Live in the cycle of stress and stimulants and toxic food and get it all done faster…but also get there faster. Or be well and back the fork off!!
I’m fired up. I’m making choices this week…stay tuned. You?
