Defusing Your Ticking Time Bomb | Healthy Aging Series: S12 E2
Jim Fixx died from a heart attack while running, on July 20, 1984, at age 52.
Does that name ring a bell? Fixx was a runner and wrote the best-selling book, “The Complete Book of Running.” He played a major role in the Running Revolution. In 1967, at age 35, Fixx decided that he needed to start taking care of himself. At that time, he smoked two packs of cigarettes a day and weighed 220 pounds. He decided to start running. He quit smoking, changed his eating habits, and lost 61 pounds. In the introduction to his book, he describes his purpose as introducing the reader to the world of running, and “to change their life.” Fixx was a runner, but his father died at age 43 from a heart attack, and that genetic predisposition followed him. The autopsy revealed that one of his coronary arteries was blocked 75%, a second 85% and a third 70%. Let me make two things clear:
- Moderate to intense cardio exercise is very, very good for you.
- You can outrun your genes.
Maybe with the advances in vascular screening, Fixx’s blocked arteries would have been detected and repaired.
But let’s face it, he outlived his father by 11 years, most likely due to his passion for running. He delayed his ticking time bomb.
Being Positive about Aging Actually Helps You Live Longer
What am I suggesting? You can defuse your ticking time bomb and prolong its negative effects for years and sometimes decades. At the beginning of this episode, I shared a screenshot of my fitness age. I’m 69 but my fitness age is 57 1/2.
Do I feel 57 1/2? Absolutely I do!
During this season, I’m sharing articles from the 2025 edition of the Harvard Health Annual. This episode, I am sharing some ideas from an article entitled, “Can You Feel Younger than Your Age?”
This article proposes viewing the process of aging with a positive mindset. Having a positive mindset, I believe, is one of the most important things that you can carry into your senior years.
There are those of you that are rolling your eyes. I can feel it. Those of you, through no fault of your own, or through a series of “sins of fitness omission,” have entered your senior years in very bad shape. For you, getting older sucks and there is very little to feel positive about. My response is: It’s never too late to start a new chapter.
“Maintaining a healthy and positive mindset as you age,” the Harvard Health Review explains, “is one of the best things you can do for a longer life.”
I can hear my mother saying during her senior years, “I love being the age I am right now. I would never want to be any age other than what I am right now”
The best thing you can start right now is telling yourself, “I love the age that I am.” And the sooner the better.
So what does this article in the Harvard Health Annual suggest as strategies for helping you to feel younger?
1. Reducing your anxiety and stress will help you feel younger.
I have always reminded my clients of my philosophy, at least part of it, “You have to adjust to the things that won’t adjust to you.” This is the “live life on life’s terms” philosophy of life. Life has things built into it that can sap you of your positive mindset. Learning to adjust to things that won’t adjust to you really means, accepting the good with the bad, taking no for an answer, doing those things that you have to do, and surfing the interruptions in life. You learn to stay positive when you give up the notion that the world, and everything and everyone in it is against you.
2. Having a sense of purpose helps you feel younger.
Your purpose doesn’t need to be grand or earth shattering. Nothing wrong with that kind of purpose, but it could simply be learning a new skill or volunteering for a good cause. Having a sense of purpose means you are still a useful part of society, you’re doing something like everyone else, you are important, and you are needed. You matter. Nothing makes you feel older like not feeling needed.
3. Staying connected with people helps you feel younger.
There is something called synergy. It’s the energy that is created when two or more people work together or partnership together, like family and friends and couples. This is the energy that helps us thrive. It’s nutritive. Staying connected with some people can rob us of our positive mindset, and at those times, disconnecting is important. The problem is, as we age, we lose our tolerance for shenanigans. We lose our tolerance for knuckleheads and malingerers, for people who thrive on chaos. Disconnect, but seek out fellow travelers who share your love of life.
4. Challenging yourself helps you feel younger.
This past week, I hiked Mount LeConte in a Great Smoking Mountain National Park. I had to do it. It was calling me. I love challenging myself. I’ve learned my limits, but I try to do something that challenges my body several times, throughout the year. It helps me feel younger. It helps me feel physically confident and competent, and that feeling permeates throughout the rest of my life. Feeling competent equals a long and meaningful life.
5. Rejecting common stereotypes about aging helps you feel younger.
I have preached in the past, “Write your own script.”
You get to decide how you want to your seniors to be lived, what script you follow. Throw away the old script! Throw away your old script! I know there will be limits that will determine what your script looks like. You must be realistic but have a vision and follow your bliss.
I have a YouTube channel called True North Waypoints. It focuses on the body-mind connection. I use the phrase, “Your body and your mind are so closely connected that they catch each other’s diseases.”
There’s no question that having a positive mindset about aging will positively affect your overall health and well-being. They both interact with each other, the body and the mind. One hand washes the other, as the saying goes.
So, I’ve offered some suggestions for defusing the ticking time bomb, which of course eventually will go off, but it doesn’t have to go off soon and can be delayed or postponed for decades.
You can change the way you think about aging at any time. How about now!
